I’m urging Nugget Market, a highly-regarded Northern California supermarket chain, to push its stated commitment to sustainability one step further by removing unsustainable palm oil-containing products from its shelves.

Palm oil is an ingredient we use in our everyday lives, and yet many are unaware of the negative effects its production has on the environment. Palm oil is in almost everything from shampoo and snack food to cosmetics and candy. It’s found in an average half of all supermarket products, and it’s ubiquity has become a threat to the environment. So, we must call upon companies and consumers to convert to sustainable practices. Palm oil is one of the larger causes of deforestation and thus, climate change, so we can’t keep allowing this damage to the Earth to be done. Not when there is something relatively easy we can do about it.

While you might be thinking getting industry to switch to sustainable palm oil consumption is far from easy, you’ll be interested to know that in 2012 the United Kingdom made a commitment to 100% sustainably-sourced palm oil. Only four years later, the U.K. reached the 75% sustainable palm oil mark.

According to the World Resources Institute, if deforestation stopped, there could be a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Stopping the production of palm oil is one step closer towards this goal. Furthermore, countless animals are killed in the process of clear-cutting and burning forests for palm oil, so many that many species that live in these regions are endangered, or on the critically endangered list. If supermarkets stopped buying unsustainable palm oil products to sell, we could force the unsustainable palm oil industry to shut down. Think about it: to keep their business afloat, palm oil production companies need customers who buy their palm oil. With just one click you could use the power we have collectively to take a stand for our environment, our home, and our future. 

Palm oil comes from the fruit of African palm oil trees. The palm oil industry destroys large forests all over the world each year to clear the way for plantations of African palm oil trees. When existing forests are cut down or burned, the felled or destroyed trees release all the carbon dioxide they’ve stored throughout their life into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Even more dire, many forested areas which are considered perfect for growing palm oil trees have a layer of peat on the ground up to 50 feet. When this peat is burned to make way for palm oil plantations, the peat releases methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas that can be up to 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change. Every year, about 3.5 to 7 billion existing trees are destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. If we curtail the production of non-sustainable palm oil—one of the largest causes of deforestation in the world—greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere would drop immensely. This is why Nugget Market should stand with consumers and activists to say no to palm oil, at the same time saying no to climate change.

Not only do palm oil plantations cause climate change, but they are also responsible for the deaths of thousands of animals per year. Palm oil plantations are obliterating the habitats of animals such as Bornean elephants, Bornean orangutans, Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinos, pygmy elephants, and clouded leopards. It is estimated that non-sustainable palm oil plantations cause the deaths of 1,000 to 5,000 orangutans a year. In total, over 193 endangered species are threatened by palm oil production, many of which are on the brink of extinction. For instance, there are now only about 400 Sumatran tigers left in the world. We cannot continue to stand by and let a measly bag of chips, tub of ice cream, or any other frivolous product be these animals’ demise. These animals are made casualties of our lifestyle, casualties of superfluous desires. If Nugget Market stopped contributing to this damage done to the environment and animals, it could greatly lessen its negative impact on the environment. 

There are a number of companies which are successfully producing palm oil in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, which doesn’t require rainforest destruction or the wipe-outs of more endangered species. Companies that produce sustainable palm oil do not clear forests to make room for palm oil plantations, allowing animals to keep their homes. Some argue that if non-sustainable palm oil plantations were banned, it would hurt the economy of the producing countries. However, converting to sustainable palm oil production will bring both steady jobs and environmental benefits. The overriding harm to the economy is climate change, which will destroy the entire ecosystem that makes these regions amenable to planting palm oil trees in the first place. This is why we need to tell palm oil companies to switch to sustainable palm oil and get certified by the non-profit organization Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). By banning unsustainable palm oil products in its stores, Nugget Market would be pushing palm oil companies to make the switch to sustainable palm oil. To all companies that stock or make unsustainable palm oil-containing products: money is just a slip of paper that can be ripped apart and taped back together, but Earth only has one life. One chance. And right now, that life depends on us. Currently, 19% of the world’s palm oil is RSPO certified, and increasing that number will make a huge contribution toward protecting our environment. The palm oil companies that are RSPO certified don’t burn forests or destroy habitats, but still provide jobs for people and allow them to put food on their table.

Nugget Market has a mission to help people have a sustainable lifestyle, and one of the biggest things they could do to help us with this is to stop selling unsustainable palm oil products in their stores. Companies should make it easier for people to find good-quality products, but instead, going to the supermarket is a constant struggle to find products without palm oil. It should not be hard to be sustainable, that’s just a fact. We all need to do our part to reach sustainability: companies need to provide consumers with environmentally-friendly products; and consumers need to switch to these products. 

Yes, this won’t be as easy as our current lifestyle in the very beginning, but saving the world was never going to be easy. And if we cling onto this easy lifestyle now, life will be so much harder just 8 years into the future. We need to stop pretending that this crisis is just a storybook. Like it will all be okay in the end with one wave of a magic wand. Because Earth has no fairy godmothers to save it. Earth’s only protectors are us. We need to stop acting like the Earth belongs to us, like it was made for us, and instead realize that maybe we were made for it.

So what will you fight for? The environment, or shampoo? 

Thank you very much for reading this petition for Nugget Market to ban unsustainable palm oil products from being sold in its stores!

Fight for your home by adding your name to this petition!