Are you surprised about this one? Maybe for ‘not so environmental persons’, this fact is a strange one. Usually, when we talk of rainforest destruction, we think of the usual destructing factors—logging to be used for coal or fossil fuel and rainforest fires caused by human negligence.
It is so common to hear about rainforest degradation. Hundreds or even thousands of acres lost per year. As for us, who are living far away from natural rainforests might think that we are not responsible for this; thinking we have no any direct access to this so how can we destroy them? But as we look clearly, we are involved to this, just indirectly. We might not be aware how our everyday activities affect the current status of our rainforests. Just like this one, who knows that even processed foods that we eat almost if not every day, could be a great factor to rainforest destruction?
Palm oil as the key suspect. We might not know this, but palm oil has been secretly a part of our everyday lives. Palm oil is a primary ingredient in most of our daily necessities – biscuits, soap, shampoo, and even fuel. Not just that, there are plenty of processed food products that contains palm oil as its key ingredient. But how does the use of palm oil causes deforestation? As we know, palm oil is extracted from coconuts, meaning it takes huge coconut plantations in order to generate such amount of palm oil to support our everyday living. In relation to this, rainforests are being cleared off to give way to these coconut plantations. Imagine every commodity in a supermarket with vegetable oil in its ingredient that is probably from palm oil plantations. Take a moment to think about how many forest trees are cut down just to plant coconut trees for palm oil.
At present, there are only few substitutes offered in replace for palm oil in the market. Some suggestions would be the use of margarine or vegetable oil from sunflower to reduce the consumption of palm oil, and in turn, lessen deforestation.
The soy bean oil and refined wheat flour as secondary culprits. Processed cookies and crackers are really great for immediate need for food right? Did you know that these foods contain additives like soy bean oil and refined what flour that also accounts for deforestation? As a response to the increasing demand for these products, more and more forests are turned to soy and corn plantations. Not just that, the meat of animals we eat is also responsible for this problem. Soybean crop is used primarily for livestock feeds used to support agricultural businesses.
With all these in mind, let us all be smart and remember how our daily actions are continually killing our natural rainforests.
Photo credits: http://blissmaybe777.wordpress.com
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