What is Sustainable Palm Oil? Part Three

Posted August 5, 2011 in The Understory

This is the third and final installment in a series of posts that endeavors to answer a simple question: What is sustainable palm oil? The answer, of course, is anything…

Cargill: Too Little Too Late

Posted July 12, 2011 in The Understory

Today, Cargill updated its palm oil commitments. While it’s significant that Cargill has committed to a global baseline of RSPO certification, the RSPO in its current form does not guarantee…

What is Sustainable Palm Oil? Part Two

Posted July 1, 2011 in The Understory

The first blog post in this series explored the environmental, social, transparency and enforcement weaknesses of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the dominant certification standard for palm oil…

What is Sustainable Palm Oil? Part One

Posted June 22, 2011 in The Understory

What is Sustainable Palm Oil? Part one of a three-part series. Palm oil has become an increasingly hot topic over the last year. This thick, long-lasting oil is found in…

Slave Labor For Palm Oil Production

Posted December 7, 2010 in The Understory

Despite the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and successive volcanic eruptions from Mt. Merapi this November, I made my way to Indonesia to attend the 2010 Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil…

Failures And Unanswered Questions At The RSPO

Posted November 11, 2010 in The Understory

Today was the final day of the 8th Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia. Many controversial and heated issues were hashed out at the four-day gathering…