Sweet Rainforest Destruction

As we were racing northward in our mini carpool to PA this past weekend, my globally minded other half mentions an article from The Economist about palm oil. Collectively, we all turned and muttered some version of, "what are you talking about?"

Well, it turns out that palm oil (enjoy the lobbying arm link) is a very useful ingredient that happens to be the reason Indonesia's tropical rainforests are being destroyed, locals and their land are being exploited, species are dying and corruption is abounding in the region.  Great you say, why should I care?

At a minimum, 50 percent of the products we purchase at the grocery store are likely to contain palm oil. Directly supporting the ongoing supply chain issues that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is trying to address. There's also the Green Palm initiative that consumers and manufacturers can be involved in.

Researching what contains palm oil takes time, so is it fair to just boycott products that you hear about containing palm oil? There's a handy short list I found about some candy products: plain M&Ms okay, but put down that Snickers. But what about all the other products?

More research required.