Did you watch the video? Maybe you took a look at the thumbnail and figured this was an ad for Doritos. It’s not. It really isn’t.
This is an ad that urges people to persuade Doritos and PepsiCo, the company that owns the brand, to help protecet the rainforest and orangutans.
The problem is palm oil. It’s possible to get palm oil ethically and you can see examples of companies who do so over at Ethical Consumer but most companies don’t. PepsiCo buys 427,500 tonnes of palm oil ever year. Demand is on the increase. It’s expected to double by 2030 and to keep growing. It’s worth noting that Pepsico try pretty hard to source their palm oil ethically.
Palm oil harvesting doesn’t just kill rainforests it kills endangered animals like orangutans who live in the environment.
Palm oil has different names. Don’t be fooled
- Palm oil can be called Palm oil kernel
- Palm oil is sometimes called “Palmitate” or “Palmate”
- Palm oil is also known as Elaeis gunieensis
- Palm oil can be labelled as Hydrated Palm Gylcerides Hexadecanoic
- Palm oil can be described as Palmitic Acid
In Pure Spirit
Are you worried about palm oil being used in any of the products you love?
Do you think videos like this are helpful? Or is simply collecting names online a worthless activity? Since Pepsico makes some effort to ethically source palm oil would SumOfUs not be better picking a different target?
If you’d like to learn more then pop over to the Sum Of Us campaign page.
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