Nestle Dumps Its Palm Oil Provider...But Might Take Him Back

Talk about one messy breakup. Back in March, Nestle said it would drop its palm oil provider, Sinar Mas, after Greenpeace exposed how the Indonesian company clear-cut rainforest and peatland to plant palm plantations. Then yesterday, the food giant took its commitment even further, partnering with The Forest Trust to completely cut from its supply chain any company that "owns or manages high-risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation." Greenpeace glowed, environmentalists applauded, and we're guessing Indonesia's wildlife danced a jig, too. But not so fast—the drama continues.

On the same day Nestle announced it was fully committing to a zero-deforestation footprint, one of its execs was feeling some breakup remorse. Bloomberg and Agence-France Presse quoted Nestle exec Jose Lopez as saying that the company may resume purchasing palm oil from Sinar Mas if an "independent" review disproves Greenpeace's claim. Greenpeace says it worries the groups Sinar Mas appointed to conduct said review, Control Union Certification and BSI Group, will produce biased results. The report—biased or not—will be ready in July.

There's clearly a lot of he-said-she-said going on, which most folks (myself included) don't have a whole lot of tolerance for. But despite the setback, I think it's important to see the silver lining. Consumer demand forced Nestle, the largest food company in the world, to agree to adopt more environmentally sustainable business practices. And not only Nestle—the same Greenpeace campaign prompted Unilever and Kraft to drop Sinar Mas, too.

Greenpeace started pressuring Nestle in March, creating a social media firestorm against the company and its use of palm oil. Within weeks of the campaign's launch, Nestle agreed to give Sinar Mas the heave-ho. Add major corporations like Unilever and Kraft to the mix, and it's clear that we as consumers don't have to sit back and let our food providers engage in unsustainable operations. We actually have a whole lot of power, so long as we collectively organize.

It's encouraging to see how far social media drove this campaign, and it doesn't have to stop with Sinar Mas. Palm oil plantations across Indonesia and Malaysia engage in similar deforestation methods, wreaking havoc on ecosystems and putting species like orangutans in peril. President Obama is set to visit Indonesia in June. Encourage him to pressure the Indonesian government to set up necessary protections for rainforests by taking part in this petition.

Photo credit: Achmad Rabin Taim via Wikimedia Commons