Episode 2 - Is boycotting palm oil the solution?

Palm oil has often been at the center of environmental debates, sparking calls for boycotts—particularly in the Western world. But is boycotting really the answer?

Hosted by Fara Rom, this episode of The Palm Pod unpacks the complexities of palm oil production, tackling common myths, misinformation, and the ongoing debate around sustainable palm oil. From its environmental footprint to the millions of livelihoods it supports, we dive deep into the nuances of this global industry.

Joining us in this timely conversation is Dr. Inke Van Der Sluijs, Director of Market Transformation at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Learn more about sustainable palm oil at www.rspo.org.

*The views and opinions expressed on The Palm Pod are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of The Palm Pod or the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You are now listening to the Palm Pod, brought to you by RSPO, a global partnership to make palm oil sustainable. Hi, I'm Farah Rum, and you're tuning in to the second episode of the Palm Pod, where we host engaging discussions, expert insights, and industry updates on sustainable palm oil, guiding consumers and businesses to make better choices for the planet. So in the previous episode, we explored the origins of oil palm, the concept of sustainable palm oil, and some of the concerns that are often raised about the industry. But in this episode, we will dive a bit deeper into the widespread myths and misinformation that have been circulating globally and damaging the reputation of this valuable crop. As many of you know, palm oil has become a highly controversial topic in some regions of the world, sparking calls for boycotts worldwide. I would like to invite Dr. Inke van der Slausch, Director of Market Transformation from RSBO, to shed some light on some of these misinformations on sustainable palm oil. Welcome, Dr. Inke.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Hi, Farah. Thank you for the invitation for this second episode of the Palm Put. I'm very excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Great. I'm really excited to hear your thoughts on this topic as well. But before we begin, can you share with us about yourself, how you started, and how you are involved in the palm oil sector and your role in RSPO?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yes, of course. So my name is Inke van der Sluis. I lead our global team in market transformation at the RSPO, the roundtable on sustainable palm oil. I've been with the organization for 11 years already, and I've seen major shifts in the sector towards sustainable production and consumption. Before joining the RCPO, I worked on sustainable development in the vegetable oils and fat sector, and I worked with the Dutch fisheries sector towards sustainability. I have a PhD in biology and focus my research on human impacts on diversity of fish species in East Africa. I live with my husband and my 13-year-old son in the flower boop area of the Netherlands, the country with large imports of palm oil into Europe due to the port of Rotterdam. I have a passion for sustainability, and in my free time, I enjoy rowing on the lakes and canals here.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Can you elaborate a little bit more about market transformation? Because I think this is not necessarily a term that is well known. And can you explain what it means for our listeners to understand better?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

So I lead the market transformation team. It's a team of 24 passionate experts who are spread over the globe. They are in Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and China. The main focus of the team is to work with processes and traders, consumer goods manufacturers, and retailers to raise awareness around sustainable palm oil and encourage the companies to buy sustainable palm oil for the products they make or put on the shelves of the supermarket. And this is important to incentivize or reward growers that have changed their practices to produce sustainable palm is, as we have learned in the previous episode of this podcast, produced with the respect to nature, labor, and people's rights. Apart from the work with the farmers and the companies, we also work with the supporting sector. Think about financial institutions and environmental and social NGOs to raise awareness on sustainable palm oil.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Okay, so it's interesting enough that you actually mentioned in the beginning when you explain about market transformation that there are several different countries from different regions that is involved. So I think the first question that I want to ask you when people mentioned palm oil to me back then, they always mentioned about Malaysia and Indonesia. So I was thinking probably this is the only place that palm oil was cultivated. So can you explain to us whether this is true?

SPEAKER_01 4:26

So originally the oil palm comes from West Africa, where production still takes place. And today, 85% of the palm oil that is produced globally comes from Indonesia and Malaysia. But palm grows around the equator. So we also see production in Thailand, for example, and in countries in Latin America. I think about Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras. Actually, Latin America has been the world's fastest region in terms of growth in production of sustainable palm oil.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

That's amazing to hear. And again, this is also something really new where it is mentioned that now even Latin America has sustainable palm oil production. I think we move to the second question. When we mention all of these countries and regions, um, there are some information out there, or misinformation perhaps, says that is it true that almost all of palm oil is not produced sustainably? And also with the involvement of RSBO within the past few years, um is the percentage of RSPO certified palm oil has been stuck at 20%. So people might say there's been no improvement for the past few years. I know there's a lot of questions here, but uh I just want to understand from your perspective, um, what do you have to say about it from the majority of palm oil being not produced sustainably, and also certified sustainable palm oil has been stagnant for the past few years?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Sure. So of the um global volume of palm oil that's produced, 20% is certified sustainable according to the RSPO standards. So when oil palms are grown sustainably and in line with the RSPO standards, it protects primary and secondary forests, wildlife habitats, and biodiversity, but also human rights, labor rights, and children's rights. Over the last years, the global production volume has grown significantly, and the certified volume has increased with similar rates, staying around 20% of the total global volume. So 80% is not certified sustainable yet. We know that our members have not certified all of their plantations, so the certified volume will further increase due to the efforts of our members. For the remaining oil palm plantations that are not in the RSPO community yet, we need to make sure that we reach them, build awareness around sustainable production, and ensure production doesn't come at the expense of nature and people.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

So just to reiterate, it means that actually the production of the certified palm oil has been increasing over the years. It's just that because the rate of total palm oil produced has also increased. So that's why the percentage has been at 20% uh for the past few years, correct? Yeah, that's correct. Okay. I want to know from your opinion about the boycott um or boycott movement that happens a lot in global north. Um, and is it true this information that they they share uh a lot widely? They say that boycotting palm oil and switching to alternative vegetable oils is always more sustainable and will solve the environmental and social issues, quote unquote, caused by the palm oil industry. Can you address this?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Let me start by saying that the palm oil is the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. With an increasing human population and an increase in welfare, this consumption only increases. Replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils, such as sunflower, soybean, or rapeseed, would require more land, as the oil palms are four to ten times more productive in terms of oil output compared to other vegetable oil crops. So, although it can be replaced by other oils in many applications, you will need more land to produce the same amount of vegetable oil. Oil pumps produce about 35% of all vegetable oil on less than 10% of the land allocated to oil crops. Replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils is not a sustainable solution, as it would actually create similar, if not bigger, environmental and social problems elsewhere. Now, knowing this, I find myself one day at the breakfast table with my family. And I notice that the margarine that we have been buying for years all of the sudden claims it's palm oil free. This upsets me for two reasons. Firstly, this company is an RSPO member that used RSPO certified palm oil. I know because I checked this. Secondly, why would a company mislead consumers by saying that a certain ingredient is not in the product? It is misleading because it suggests that it's better when it's removed. But is that actually the case? In terms of environmental footprint, no, because we know palm is four to ten times more productive than other vegetable oil crops. And in terms of social impact, I'm also not convinced. Did you know that 7 million smallholder farmers, so these are small-scale farmers, depend on this crop. And oil palm cultivation has positively impacted the lives and livelihoods of millions of workers, smallholders, and local communities. Claiming palm free is misleading the consumers and not doing any justice to the RCPO members that have changed to sustainable practices. For consumers, even the conscious ones, it's very difficult to make an informed decision about the products they choose when false claims are available in the market. But you have to ask yourself: what do I buy? What is the claim? And what is the ingredient that has a lower ecological or social footprint? Palm is used as a cooking oil. It's in spreads like margarine, peanut butter, and chocolate spread, but it's not only found in food, it's also in home and personal care products. Think about your cosmetics, cleaning products, and candles. We have a trademark that can be used on PAC, and you can find it on soaps and cookies and cooking oils on the on the shelves with the uh with the RSPO trademark. Unfortunately, often companies do not claim the use of sustainable palm oil on PAC because space is limited, or there are many ingredients in the product, and a company doesn't want to highlight the sustainability of one ingredient only. Consumers can check our shared responsibility scorecard for the performance of their favorite brands on our website.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

That's great. And it's really interesting the perspective that you mentioned about when a company is claiming or misleading the consumers about not having a certain ingredient. It kind of implies that the certain ingredient is bad, but it's not really the case. So I think RSBO has uh contributed um a lot in terms of making sure that there's more and more companies and businesses, basically the members, to abide by the sustainability rule or to be better in terms of their production. So there are some accusations that stated RSPO, despite the great work that has been done over the past 20 years, is actually a greenwashing body or organization. How do you respond to this?

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Well, I wouldn't work for RSPO if I believe that we're just a greenwashing organization. That's true. I believe, yeah, I believe in the mission and the vision of the RSPO, and I've witnessed some of the positive impacts that our members have created. I've seen projects on the ground where this became very clear to me. So in my first year, which was um 2014, we had a field trip for new staff. I think about this. I had never seen an oil pump plantation, nor had I ever traveled in Asia. We visited an RSPO certified plantation in Malaysia, where I learned a lot about the sector and the changes in practice that were required to meet the RSPO standards. What amazed me were two projects this company had developed since they became an RSPO member. The first was uh this nature restoration project. Plantation companies should not be planting in riparian zones, which are the uh which is the piece of land along the river. But the company had cleared this area already when the plantation company was established in the 80s. Now, they became aware of this rule when they were implementing the RCPO standard and started the restoration project. By the time we visited the company, the riparian zone was restored, had many species of native plants and trees, and it served as a corridor for migrating animal species. And on top of that, it ensured that there was no land erosion anymore, which is also beneficial for the company. The second project that really touched me was the school that was built on the plantation for migrant workers' children. I had never imagined that plantation companies were so large that workers live in houses on the plantations. And these workers, of course, also have children. The schools are often too far, or the workers are often foreign workers, which means that the kids may not be entitled to go to the local schools. On this plantation, children were educated and not allowed to work, which is also not necessarily a given in the agricultural sector. Seeing these projects on nature restoration and children's education show that sustainable palm production contributes to biodiversity, nature, and the future generation.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

It's really interesting when you mention that the moment you join RSPO, you get to experience a lot more hands-on, or I can say experience the sustainability efforts on ground. And I think this is really 100% true for myself as well. Um, I couldn't believe when I see there's a lot of great benefits, especially for smallholders, when I uh visited some of the plantation as well. And I guess people would say this is something that is biased for us because we work, we kind of involve in the industry, but this is the truth that I feel a lot of people should be more aware of. Yeah. And um speaking about smallholder, um, there's another myth I can say that um stated that palm oil production only benefits large corporations. Um, they say like it's a big boy uh businesses. Um, can you elaborate a bit more because you in you mentioned about just a little bit about how smallholders are actually the backbone of this industry as well and not just the big companies?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Thank you, Farrah, for this question. As it gives me the opportunity to speak about smallholders, which will be the main focus of the next episode of the palm put. It is true that large uh corporations have more resources to change their practices to produce sustainably and meet the demand of markets that ask for sustainable palm oil through sourcing policies or even legislation. But we should not forget that currently there are an estimated 7 million smallholder farmers globally who rely on oil palm cultivation for their livelihood and to provide for their family. In Africa, smallholder farmers make up about 70% of total production area spread across more than 20 countries. Palm oil is an important crop for the gross domestic products of the world's emerging economies, and it's important to enhance rural income, alleviate poverty in several of the world's developing countries, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. RSPO strives to support more smallholders to become certified in order to produce more oil on less land, improve their livelihoods, and reduce the risk of land conversion, which threatens forests, wildlife, and biodiversity. By learning best management practices, smallholders who are certified to produce sustainable palm oil also gain access to markets. We encourage companies that use palm oil for their products to support smallholders through, for example, the purchase of smallholder credits. This way, buyers in the global market can directly support independent small-scale farmers who have limited access to international markets or sustainable supply chains. In turn, these farmers are incentivized for their efforts to adopt sustainable production practices. Apart from the credit system for large and small producers, we have the RSPO Small Holders Support Fund to help oil palm smallholders around the world to get certified by RSPO without them incurring the costs. We also have a smallholder training academy to build capacity of smallholders through access to high-quality training, training guides and materials on practical tools and agricultural best practices. The academy aims to build a global community of master trainers and helps smallholders to move towards more sustainable livelihoods. But let me stop there as you will hear more about this in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Great. And it's really exciting to see that smallholders or independent farmers are being supported. Thank you so much, Inke. Um, do you have any closing remarks that you want to share with us?

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Thank you, Farah. It was really um good to um to speak to you today. I think it's very um difficult to capture everything in one podcast. So I hope we can do a full few um new episodes to dive deeper into some of these topics. Uh, but we are here to support the sector to make it more sustainable.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

So I think that wraps up the episode on is boycotting palm oil the solution? And we hope we've shed some light on the complexity surrounding palm oil and help clear up some of the misconceptions that have fueled the global debate. And it's important to approach these issues with a more balanced perspective and understanding the real impact while also recognizing the efforts being made towards sustainability. Thanks for tuning in. And as always, keep asking questions. Stay informed and join us next time for more insightful discussion. I was speaking to our guest, Dr. Inke van der Slausch, Director of Market Transformation from RSPO. And I am Fararo, and this is the palm pot.