Palm oil has recently come to light on many levels in the media. Usually, the first thing we hear about is the environmental impact- images of burned rainforests and lifeless, charred bodies of orangutans point to the need for better sustainability within the palm oil industry. Less often talked about but even more urgent, though, is the issue of labor trafficking and horrific abuse towards workers in the palm oil industry.
This topic is a hard one to address for two reasons:
- Palm oil is in 50% of our groceries and consumable products. Even if you have the time and money to buy and eat purely unprocessed foods and high-quality consumables, palm oil is hard to avoid.
- The information readily available to everyday consumers is controversial. One group will claim that sustainable or ethically sourced palm oil is readily available from organizations x, y, or z. Another group will pipe up with reasons why group x, y, or z is actually unethical and may actually be more harmful to the environment and people. For people who just want to make ethical buying choices, trying to understand the palm oil industry can be discouraging to the point where people feel like giving up…but, the reality of the palm oil industry is too dark to be brushed aside.
The majority of the world’s supply of palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia. When researchers took a deep dive into palm oil farms (this video is just one example), they found workers in unthinkable conditions, including:
•Workers being forced to work overtime in dangerous conditions, without extra pay or any sort of protection or compensation if they are injured while working.
•Sexual harassment and rape/assault of workers, with no legal support or protection if they try to report it.
•”Double-trafficking”- taking advantage of vulnerable refugees who are fleeing slavery and unjust imprisonment in nearby regions, promising them steady work on the palm oil farms, but then taking away their IDs or beating them if they try to leave or cannot meet demands.
•Workers being forced to bring their children to help them meet impossibly high work quotas- if they fail to meet the quotas, they may face financial or physical abuse from their employers. Small children are forced to help with dangerous, back-breaking labor. Because they cannot attend school while helping their parents, children who survive the terrible conditions into adulthood will likely have no choice other than continued enslavement on the palm oil farms, and they will eventually be forced to bring their children to help them, repeating the cycle of slavery and poverty.
Our initial response may be to cry out, “Boycott Palm Oil!”, but the effects of eliminating palm oil can be even more devastating than our global obsession with it. Palm oil is one of the most efficient oils to grow and harvest, and it has been used to replace dangerous trans-fats in many foods. Many alternatives to palm oil would create even more devastation in our environment, to public health, and to farmers who are trying to run ethical palm oil businesses (labor traffickers, however, would simply apply their cruel methods to a new form of business, and former trafficking victims would be without work, leaving them vulnerable to new forms of trafficking and exploitation).
As I mentioned above, it’s difficult to determine the most effective path to fighting labor trafficking and slavery within the palm oil industry. A simple internet search will point to The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a non-profit that unites stakeholders in specific standards for palm oil, including sustainable practices and ethical labor practices. However, you may have to dig deeper to find out if your favorite companies are using sustainable palm oil- just because a company is listed as a member does not mean they have met all their goals to be RSPO certified. Given what is available to consumers, though, seeking out RSPO certified products may be one of the best steps in the right direction that we can take.
Ultimately, be it palm oil or any other raw materials that have historical ties to slavery, our responsibility as consumers is the same: to do our research, be aware of new developments, and check our sources. It can feel like a hassle. It’s inconvenient. But, 40.3 million people are living in slavery and trafficking around the world. Inconvenience and hassle are a small price to pay for their freedom.