Blog 2: Kellogg Agrees to Stop Using Conflict Palm Oil

Summary:

This article focuses on the recent decision by Kellogg's to eliminate untraceable palm oil from their products. Starting in 2016, Kellogg's will only use palm oil that has been verified as "environmentally appropriate" (whatever that means), and will improve measures needed to trace the palm oil to its source. This is apparently the strongest move yet by a public food manufacturer to curb the nightmarish deforestation and human rights violations happening in places like Indonesia and New Guinea because of the palm oil industry. Palm oil is a $50,000,000,000/year industry and is used in nearly half of all products on the shelves at supermarkets. According to this article, the pressure for Kellogg's to change their sourcing methods prompted Chinese palm oil giant, Wilmar International Ltd., to adopt a more "sustainable" model as well.

Analysis:

While this is indeed good news, I do not see how these additional measures will make palm oil a more "sustainable" crop considering the amount of palm oil consumed around the world and the very limited amount of space used to raise it. Land is becoming a scarce commodity in Indonesia, and the orangutans, elephants, Sumatran tigers, and indigenous tribes are bearing the brunt of this atrocity. The real problem lies in the fact that Americans, Europeans, Chinese, etc. should not be consuming that which does not grow on our own soils. If we were to ever get serious about "sustainability", we would immediately halt all imports and work with what we have in our own respective regions. The globalization of agriculture is one, if not the most urgent matters affecting our planet, not to mention that these companies are often tied to countless human rights abuses. We are essentially promoting slavery and destruction with every purchase we make. I for one do not trust these companies that caused the problem to eliminate the problem. I feel the only reason they have to push sustainability is to sustain profits. 

Link:
 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-14/kellogg-to-stop-using-deforested-palm-oil-by-2016-amid-pressure