A step toward sustainable palm oil
Just when we -- and Greenpeace -- were about to go over the edge in our fight against the ubiquitous and evil palm oil, some good news appeared on the horizon: sustainably farmed palm oil!I know I never expected to put those four words together, and Greenpeace isn't buying the story. Still, it could it be a good first step.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is an organization created by the palm oil industry, so they're suspect to start with. But they did create a certification system that requires participants to follow sustainable farming and fair trade practices.
The first batch of palm oil produced under these guidelines is about to be delivered to Europe, where it will distributed to buyers including Unilever and British grocer J. Sainsbury.
I think the quote from Fiona Wheatley of Sainsbury's sums it up best. To paraphrase, she subtly acknowledges that these guidelines aren't perfect yet, but they're better than the big fat nothing we've done to regulate palm oil production in the past.
So there you have it. Progress. Ugly, lurching and inelegant, but better than what we were doing before. I'll take it!
Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images
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