The sustainability of palm oil is just an empty, baseless statement. An Amnesty International survey of Indonesian palm plantations reveals that production certified as “sustainable” by RSPO is the scene of serious human rights violations. The organization, in its report “The Great Palm Oil Scandal,” testifies to the employment of minors in dangerous conditions, the exploitation of workers, and the use of banned pesticides that leave obvious wounds on the bodies of people harvesting the fruit used to produce palm oil. All this in exchange for miserable fees.
Amnesty International has followed the path of palm oil from horror plantations to store shelves, going so far as to expose Big Food brands that falsely claim to consumers that they employ sustainable palm oil.
The names are those of the exclusive club of the world’s big food and personal and household hygiene manufacturers: AFAMSA, ADM, Colgate-Palmolive, Elevance, Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, and Unilever. Nine giants that collectively turned $325 billion in profits in 2015. All customers of the world’s largest oil palm grower, Singapore-based agribusiness giant Wilmar.
“Big brands like Colgate, Nestlé and Unilever assure their consumers that they are using sustainable palm oil but our research says otherwise. There is nothing sustainable about palm oil that is produced with child and forced labor. The violations found on Wilmar’s plantations are not isolated cases but the predictable and systematic result of the way this producer operates,” says Meghna Abraham of Amnesty International, which conducted the investigation.
The international organization is questioning companies involved in the scandal to find out whether they buy from Wilmar the palm oil used in well-known products, such as Magnum ice cream, Colgate toothpaste, Dove cosmetics, Knorr soup, KitKat chocolate bar, Pantene shampoo, Ariel detergent, and Pot Noodle noodles.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
