The Curmudgeon goes Palm Oil Free

After much wrangling and researching, I have decided that 2011 will be the year I strive to be palm oil free. It's a near-ubiquitous product that you'll find sneakily placed in a lot of ingredient lists, from chocolate bars to shampoos and everything inbetween.

So why am I so uptight about it? Well, here's why.

Producers of palm oil have been reported by the BBC to have illegally logged and cleared ground in high conservation areas in Borneo. Not only is this a devastating attack on vital forestry, but also represents a massive loss of habitat for the Orangutan. It is a destructive, ruthless industry, that is relied upon heavily to provide cheap vegetable oil. It's also used as a source of cheap, "clean" biofuel - although the idea of deforesting Indonesia to provide oil to burn strikes me as at the best illogical, and at the worst farcically stupid.

I never claimed to be above emotional blackmail. Here, have two baby Orangutans to make you feel *extra* guilty.

Avoiding it isn't easy. Thankfully, being the lentil eating hippy that I am, I avoid a large wedge of processed foods and make a lot of things from scratch, thereby avoiding a lot of everyday sources. For those with a slightly less holier than thou attitude to the kitchen, I find this blog has an excellent list of how to spot palm oil in the ingredients list. You'd be surprised. Fancy a nice bacon sarnie? Well, the bread, if store bought, most likely has palm oil as its fat content. Many meats also are impregnated with oils for "cooking ease", which in many cases, bizarrely, is palm oil. Vegetable oil based spread? I think you've guessed the pattern by now.

Australia seems to be the best place to go palm oil free for the moment - there is a relatively high profile campaign to avoid the product, with brands of cleaning product and foodstuffs in major supermarkets heavily promoted as palm oil free. I heartily approve of their example. Here in the UK, less of a fuss seems to have been made, and it's not quite so easy to find products definitely free of palm oil and its derivatives.

Where I fall down is my love of the tasty treat - chocolate. Palm oil is in almost every brand, and even if it comes from those labelled with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) logo, I'm keen to avoid it. As I've said, it's an industry I want no part in supporting. So who are the go-to brands to avoid palm oil?

LUSH cosmetics have already removed almost all palm oil from their supply chain, and are working hard to remove the very last traces of it.

Walkers crisps - cook exclusively in sunflower oil, so as far as palm oil content goes, it's a guilt free treat. The same goes for their Doritos brand.

For lovers of other crisps, you can also enjoy Hula Hoops and Kettle Chips without palm oil.

Mainstream cheese lovers - rejoice! Cathedral City and Dairylea are both good (though I'd recommend a good local cheesemaker instead).

Waitrose and Co-op label ALL of their own brand products using palm oil clearly instead of hiding behind other, more anonymous names, so read those labels clearly!

Chocolate is a very difficult one, as so many brands use it. There is an excellent little brand, Chokolit, that is totally palm oil free and donates money to fantastic causes. I HIGHLY recommend this brand! I would love to find more brands that are palm oil free, so please let me know in comments if you find anything further. STOP PRESS! - Divine and Dubble chocolate is made from pure cocoa butter rather than adding vegetable oil, and is totally palm oil free. It's also fair trade.

For further information, I'd read Not Just an Essex Girl's excellent post that has links to some very helpful sites for lists of foods, cleaning products and general information.

Even if you can't avoid it entirely, I hope this post has helped to highlight some of the issues involved and show how you can come a few steps closer to being an ethical consumer.

Have a week or two to spare this summer?

There are lots of ways to spend your free time in a green manner these days, especially now the "Big Society" means community groups will need more volunteer support to stay afloat. Here are my top three recommendations for a volunteering holiday should you be feeling philanthropic with your time this summer.

The Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Powys, Wales

A fantastic place where volunteers can learn about an extremely wide variety of skills during a short (or long term if you're hardcore) placement. This can range from gardening to turbine construction, as volunteers generally muck in and do whatever is needed. I have visited this centre several times and it is a constant joy and inspiration. Competition for volunteer places is hot, so get your application in before March to be in with a shout.

National Trust working holidays

From £90 a week, these give you food and board and the opportunity to experience a wide variety of roles that are a little out of the ordinary. Conservation roles, dry stone walling, forestry - there are lots of great practical skills to be learnt here for the enthusiastic volunteer.

Green Stewards - Festival Stewarding

This group steward some of the biggest festivals, and in return for a deposit, or studying for one of their NVQ courses, you can get paid to work at festivals and get in for free. This year they are stewarding at not only mainstream events like Glastonbury, but also my personal favourite Beautiful Days.

Have any you think I should be recommending? Send me a link!

If you go down to the woods today...

...you might find a very large FOR SALE sign.

Not having found enough change down the back of the Benefits sofa, the government are now attempting to sell of assets to get a bit of cash together to help stick a finger in the dam of the declining economy. The latest measure is to sell off forestry currently under government control, a tactic that has shown the divide in green and environmentalist groups. To read the proposals and find out more about the consultation, I recommend the DEFRA website.

In the red corner, there are those who decry this as privatisation through the back door, stealth tax-relief for Cameron's toff big business chums, a blow to the freedom of access to the nation's forestry. This corner has a (probably entirely justified) distrust for the government, and dismisses clauses such as protected access rights as just another easily broken promise. If you find yourself in this camp, I recommend signing the petition at 38 Degrees to stop the proposals.

In the blue corner, there are those that welcome the decentralisation of control, and are optimistic for the proposals for community and charity groups to run ancient and heritage woodlands. This corner cautiously believes in the proposals. If you find yourself in this camp, or want to learn more about the benefits, try this Guardian crowd-sourced piece about the potential benefits of the changes.

Where do I stand? Well, forgive this blogger for being on the fence until more concrete results are seen from the proposals. I try to be optimistic, as I believe that community groups are probably the best way for our ancient woodlands to be kept, groups who have direct and passionate connections to the woods in question. I also understand the need for a more commercial form of management for our large swathes of post-war softwood plantations that could benefit from targeted business ownership. What I'm not so positive about is the spectre of small local groups being unable to meet the costs of purchase for woodlands and them passing by default to commercial interests, which have the potential for mismanagement and restricting access with the impunity of large corporations confident in their legal representation.

This old tree hugger will be watching the case with interest.

The amazing disappearing blogger

It's been a quiet old six months or so here on the Green Curmudgeon blog. This isn't because of a lack of things to talk about - there have been political and environmental intrigue in spades.

Let's just say I'm allergic to Tories in government.

But now, I AM BACK. Just as aggravated as ever.

Coming up - my recommendations for good Green reading on the internet, a rundown of 2010, and my pick of events for the coming year. Oh, and probably lots and lots of ranting.