By Palm oil recently surpassed beef as the commodity Americans consume that contributes the most to tropical deforestation. That’s because it’s in almost everything, even things we’d never fully considered before, like animal feed—a major revelation that’s throwing a big wrench into corporate ”zero deforestation” promises.
Much has been written about the direct impacts of animal agriculture on global greenhouse gas emissions, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and deforestation. The same can be said for palm oil and its impacts on rainforests.
But the increasing use of palm oil in animal feed has deepened an unholy alliance between two planet-destroying industries, with the potential to dramatically accelerate tropical deforestation.
RAN’s analysis found that palm-oil based feed has become the number one palm oil product category imported into the United States. This feed is at high risk of association with deforestation and rights abuses, as most importers lack “no deforestation” policies, which means they’re not paying attention to where the palm oil comes from, or if it was produced at the expense of rainforests.
Snack companies are also not paying attention: Danone, Ferrero, Mars, Nestlé and Unilever claim to have nearly or fully deforestation-free supply chains, because they only source “deforestation free” palm oil as an ingredient to add to their products. Yet the dairy they use comes from animals that are quite literally gobbling up rainforests.
To date, only Swedish dairy giant Arla has made “zero deforestation” commitments about animal feed in their milk supply chains. The others continue to pretend that their cows aren’t turning our rainforests into one big pile of cud.
