Activists accuse the industry of being responsible for tropical rainforest deforestation and human rights abuses, and have initiated a consumer boycott of palm oil, which is found in everything from pizza to lipsticks. However, such campaigns are hindering industry efforts to achieve sustainability certification and develop a market for certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
The branding of the anti-palm oil range is very different from that of sustainable products such as organic, fair trade, animal friendly, vegetarian, etc. This type of polarising strategy has not been used before – the usual method is to communicate the added value of a product without comparing it to the competition. Even sugar-free and anti-allergy products don’t discredit the ingredients they don’t contain. In other words, an anti-animal cruelty lobby group may show gruesome images of animal suffering as part of its campaign, but vegetarian food brands choose positive marketing and emphasise the intrinsic value of their own products.
If palm oil is banned, companies or governments might turn to other crops, which is also risky and could create problems elsewhere. Other crops could replace or even exacerbate palm oil’s role in deforestation in Indonesia or elsewhere. This is one of the reasons why Greenpeace does not advocate that companies or governments stop or ban palm oil production – on the contrary, they advocate that companies do not produce or trade in palm oil that sacrifices forests and peatlands. They encourage the industry to produce palm oil sustainably.
But the collateral damage on the road to responsible and sustainable palm oil production is likely to be much greater. Sustainable palm oil will sooner or later lose its competitive advantage over non-sustainable palm activities. So it is the sustainable producers and the emerging paradigm for sustainable palm oil production that will lose. And that means that in the end, the most likely losers from the proposed palm oil ban will be social conditions, forests, biodiversity, and the climate, as most of the incentives for sustainable palm oil production will disappear.
What is the alternative to the palm oil ban? Instead of banning palm oil in biofuels, sustainability requirements for all palm oil should be extended to all vegetable oils and possibly to all biomass production. Banning palm oil for energy use does not contribute to the fundamental goal of moving to sustainable agriculture. The sustainability certification requirement of RED has provided a first starting point; it should be expanded and not replaced by a heavy-handed measure.
