Palm oil’s hidden presence in personal care products prompts reform
Consumers are beginning to recognize the huge environmental costs of palm oil use in the packaged foods industry, but what’s less known is how widely the ingredient is used in everyday products sold by the personal care industry. In FERN’s latest story, “The Makeover,” Jocelyn Zuckerman reports on this industry and its attempts to reform its supply chain in a story produced with Vogue Magazine. (No paywall)
Palm oil industry confronts its human rights problem
In the last decade, consumers across North America and Europe have become increasingly aware of the environmental costs of producing palm oil, now the world’s most widely consumed vegetable oil. The industry’s social problems, however, have remained largely in the dark.
Borneo’s ancient forests vanishing at faster rate due to palm oil
A new study found that 18.7 million hectares of old-growth forest in Borneo were cleared between 1973 and 2015, but the pace increased dramatically after 2005 with the expansion of palm oil plantations, according to a report in Mongabay, a conservation news site. Of the total cleared, 4.5 to …
US and Japan to meet on agriculture market access
U.S. and Japanese officials are to discuss agriculture market access issues this week in Tokyo. Market access has become a major obstacle to a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement involving...
Obama trip to Asia has farm trade implications
President Obama will meet the leaders of four nations - Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines - during a trip through Asia that begins on Tuesday.