If the palm oil industry waited for consumers to care, sustainability would get nowhere

There is a disconnect between sustainability and consumer understanding and action. How much is this harming progress towards better practice?

Palm oil is the most-used vegetable oil in the world, accounting for some 65% of all vegetable oil traded, and is found in everything from washing powder to breakfast cereals. Global production has doubled over the past decade and is set to double again by 2020.

But oil palm trees only grow in tropical areas, and vast monocrops are rapidly destroying virgin rainforests and peatland. Ecosystem collapse, air pollution and species extinction have followed.