Oil palms.

Known for the oil its fruits produce, these trees are consuming the countryside and rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia at a shocking pace.

And this massive terraforming endeavor is all happening to satisfy demand from western countries

hooked on palm oil's ability to replace more costly alternatives in products spanning from shampoos to pizza doughs.

If you look closely, palm oil is everywhere.

Yet, it can often disguise itself with sneaky aliases on ingredient lists.

The ubiquity of palm oil has become such a hot-button issue

that the European Union decided to ban subsidies of palm oil in biofuels by 2020.

The oil is shrouded in controversy and skepticism.

I want to know whether the environmental impact of palm oil consumption warrants these drastic measures,

whether boycotting or banning palm oil is a reasonable solution.

While palm oil often ends up in products consumed mostly in the US and Europe,

the story of palm oil's environmental devastation lies rooted in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Combined, these two countries satisfy 90% of the global demand for palm oil.

Through a medley of small landholders and large corporations, rural land has been transformed into an oil palm monocropping factory.

According to one analysis, from 1990 to 2010, 9.6 million hectares of land were converted to industrial oil palm farms in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea.

That being said, the makeup of the land before conversion varied widely,

and as a result, the environmental impacts of this massive land transformation is contextual.

One study conducted by Forest Watch Indonesia claims that while some of this deforestation is government sanctioned,

almost 50% of natural forest loss is located outside of lands zoned for logging or production.

And it's this act of rapidly terraforming forest land into neat rows of oil palms that has led to a backlash against palm oil products.

Not only is the loss of rainforest a problem due to the subsequent loss of the ability to sequester large amounts of carbon,

but it also means the destruction of rich biodiverse habitats.

And often, the easiest and cheapest way to ready large swaths of forest for production is through burning.

In the case of trees, this compounds the environmentally damaging act of clear-cutting

by releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere via smoke.

Another peer-reviewed study on oil palm deforestation found that between 1990 and 2010,

net carbon dioxide emissions from land use change due to oil palm plantations increased from 92 to 184 teragrams of carbon dioxide per year in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea.

That's an increase of the equivalent of roughly 36,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools of carbon dioxide more per year.

Besides the deforestation of primary forests and rainforest,

the draining and burning of peatlands in Southeast Asia has caused huge problems for the environment and atmosphere.

Peatlands act like sponges for carbon dioxide: soaking up and storing large quantities of CO2 in their waterlogged, low oxygen environments.

But when oil palm producers drain these swamps and burn the remaining foliage to establish their crops,

this carbon sequestration reverses and releases all that carbon back into the atmosphere.

This destructive process has led to a sharp decline of peatlands in Indonesia and Malaysia,

and according to a study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment,

Southeast Asian peatlands could disappear by 2030 if the rate of oil palm farming continues.

Ironically, one of the main drivers of this rampant proliferation of oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia is the desire for sustainable biofuels in Europe.

Or rather it was until very recently.

Europe has long sought to replace their emissions-heavy diesel fuel with something a little more clean-burning.

Their solution was biofuels, chief of which was palm oil.

Although the EU's cars appeared to be less emissions-heavy with biofuels in use,

the true consequences of their supposed environmentalism lay halfway across the world in razed forests and burned peatlands.

So their sustainable fuel initiative was not really sustainable at all.

As a result, the European Commission banned palm oil biofuel subsidies in March of 2019.

While this is a step forward in slowing the boom of slash-and-burn oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia,

it also means a strong blow to smallholder farmers reliant on the expanding palm oil industry.

The Guardian interviewed 66-year-old oil palm farmer, Hussain Mohamed, who decried the EU's choice to draw down their consumption of palm oil biofuels.

He says, "I've spent all my money on the palm oil farm, I've recently planted new trees that will last for the next 25 years,

and my whole family relies on this. It's how my kids afford to study."

So, while independent small farmers represent only a portion of oil palm production,

with the rest owned by much larger corporations, this decision could upend their livelihoods.

In a sense, the EU's flip-flopping on palm oil has manufactured a boom-and-bust process for smaller farmers who've invested their future in palm oil plantations.

The point here is this: palm oil production is indeed tied to environmentally harmful practices like clear-cutting rainforests and draining and burning peatlands.

And for that reason, our global consumption of palm oil needs to be minimized or at least driven into a slower, more sustainable model

that considers the environmental impacts of land use before tearing apart beneficial forests.

However, extracting ourselves from this process is a complicated matter

that can exact negative consequences on independent growers and wage laborers now dependent on the Southeast Asian palm oil production industry.

As the primary consumers of this oil, Europe and the United States have drivemand forward and ultimately the reckless pace of palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia.en the d

As a result, simply banning palm oils is not enough.

In an official statement, The World Wildlife Fund argues that rather than boycotting,

working from within to establish environmental best practices for oil palm growers is the best way forward.

There's definitely some truth to the statement, because when done right, oil palms can yield the highest amount of oil per acre of land.

And if western countries drastically decrease their demand for palm oil,

that could bring harsh disaster for many now reliant on a western thirst for the oil.

Ultimately, the palm oil industry is now the whims of economically and politically powerful countries

and is just one of many industries that sacrifices environmental health and the well-being of poor and marginalized communities in pursuit of profits.

When it comes down to it, the problems of the palm oil industry are symptoms of a much larger problem

that there are countries who get to dictate global economies.

And those countries don't operate on an ethic of environmental or social care, but rather one of domination and exploitation.

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