Fight Against Palm Oil

Some time ago, just before David Cameron became Prime Minister, I sent away an already typed out ‘essay’ on the effects of bio fuels from a Lush paper. Even though this will help the planet in some ways such as reducing carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere, it also contributes to the ongoing process of deforestation in Malaysia and in Africa. This deforestation affects all of the wild animal population that lives in these places. This deforestation is due to palm oil plantations and an ‘ingredient’ for bio fuels that will soon be used to fuel houses and cars. Orang-utans have approximately under five years left before they become extinct and that was said several years ago.

Palm oil is in about 50% of what we eat. It is in food such as pastries, ready meals, chocolate, and crisps etc.

You’ll see on just about every channel, except BBC channels, adverts to donate money for starving children in Africa and for animals on the brink of being annihilated etc. You may turn over and try to ignore these facts and you will probably not be inclined to even give a few pounds a month to help, but there are other ways that you can help. Instead of giving a few pound each month to a charity why don’t you spend more than a few pounds a month on buying different foods which avoid using palm oil or foods such as fair trade. Instead of buying mashed potatoes in a pot that you shove in the microwave and uses a cheap palm oil instead of butter, buy some cheaper potatoes and spend only 10 minutes peeling, chopping and then boil them. It doesn’t take that long and instead of properly cooking dinner you could of been sitting down watching TV, eating some chocolate and killing a few orang-utans along the way.


Many people don’t really ignore the problem but think that someone else will change their habits, keep theirs and not do anything about it. People think one person isn’t going to make a bit of difference but in reality, one person can make a lot of different. It only takes one person to shout it out and soon many will follow.


This isn’t a form of propaganda but it is a form of truth that everybody knows, sometimes forget and ignore.
So how can we help? Stop using products that contain palm oil and check the label, show your support against palm oil, and spread the word. There are many other ways to help by looking on the internet.

Here are a few links which may be of interest,

 Palm Oil is in Everything
 GREEN Film
“GREEN is a visually stunning documentary (48 minutes) which tells the moving story about the corporate conversion of rainforests in Indonesia for palm oil, tropical wood and paper through the eyes of one of the palm oil industry’s victims – a dying orang-utan. The film tells a complex narrative without words: the Indonesian rainforest is being decimated at an alarming rate, fuelled by consumer demand for cheap vegetable oil and bio fuel.”

 Palm Oil Greenpeace
 Destruction of Forest in Borneo

 Saving Orang-utans in Borneo
 Lush Campaign Against Palm Oil