(@The Puffin Post) - Last week I addressed the globalization issues of the rising avocado consumption (deforestation in Mexico) and an urbanization problem in Sri Lanka (The elephant conflict with humans in Sri Lanka). Today I want to raise awareness toward another problematic nature our world faces. The rising demand of palm oil of our industries is conscienceless.

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You think you do not consume palm oil?

Well, think again!

The chance is high that you consume palm oil on a daily basis and that you have plenty of palm oil products in your household. Go and check for yourself.

Higher estimates point out that one in ten products in the grocery stores contain palm oil.

I am sorry to tell you: Yes, your Ben & Jerry's ice cream contains palm oils

The list of palm oil products from which only very few comes from sustainable source would fill an endless amount of pages over pages but here is a quick overview of products for which palm oil is used for:

• Shampoo and further cosmetics
• Margarines
• Cooking oils and frying fats
• Chocolate / cake mixes / biscuits / crackers / cookies / Ice cream
• Instant noodles
• Biofuel
• etc.

We as consumers have our difficulties to determine if the oil was used though, as often the producer will only list "vegetable oil" under ingredients instead of palm oil or other alternate names are used on the product.

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The rising demand causes tropical forests to diminish. Especially in Indonesia and in Malaysia the deforestations take on terrifying sizes, where 85 percent of the global palm oil production comes from.

image credit: Wikipedia Commons

The palm oil exports from South-East Asia nowadays are 240 times greater than in the early 20th Century , when oil palms were brought to Asia from West Africa. The British Industrial Revolution fueled the demand back then.

Exports in tonnes annually	Early 20th Century	nowadays
from South-East Asia	250,000	60,000,000

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What kind of troubles does the expansion of oil palm plantations cause?

• Deforstation: Tropical forests dissapear
• Animals are loosing their habitat: The death elephant in the first image was poisoned at an oil palm plantation.
• Poses threats to endangered species such as tigers, elephants and orangutans
• 90 % of the natural habitats of orangutans have been cleared within solely the last 20 years
• Used chemicals threaten the availability of clean water and fertile lands
• Global warming: By clearing the forests for the plantations significant amounts of carbon dioxide are released.

My appeal: Make the world a better place and reduce your intake of palm oil products.

Please write below in the comments which products at home you found listing palm oil or palm oil derivatives as ingredients and write down YES or NO:

• YES if you are willing to give up some of these products or significantly reduce your intake.
• NO if you are not willing to change your habits.

From 1990 until 2010 the rising demand of palm oil caused a deforestation of 3,5 million hectares

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Click HERE to follow and check out my posts:

• The negative impact of avocado consumption.

• The elephant conflict with humans in Sri Lanka.

• The Steemit Diet featuring 15 Steemit Cooking Magicians: 3 days of mouth-watering recipes of Steemians! Steemit Cooking Book #1 connecting the world