Palm Done Right®

Palm Oil 101

There have been many horror stories about the impact of palm oil on the environment - Orphaned orangutans, rainforests destruction, smoldering fires that pollute the air, displaced communities and exploitation of workers.  However, things have changed.

Palm oil is one of the most widely used vegetable oils in the world. It can be found in everything from food and household products to biofuels and cosmetics. However, the production of palm oil has been linked to environmental and social issues such as deforestation, habitat destruction, and human rights abuses. To address these concerns, the palm oil industry has established various sustainability initiatives, certifications, and standards to ensure that palm oil is produced responsibly and sustainably. These efforts include:

Palm Done Right (PDR): This is a sustainable palm oil initiative that goes beyond RSPO standards to promote regenerative agriculture practices. PDR seeks to protect the environment and promote the well-being of small farmers and their communities.

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO): The RSPO is a certificate program that sets environmental and social criteria for palm oil production. To be certified, palm oil producers must adhere to strict standards that prohibit deforestation, the destruction of high conservation value areas, and the exploitation of workers.

Another initiative is Palm Done Right (PDR), which goes beyond RSPO standards to promote regenerative agriculture practices. PDR seeks to protect the atmosphere and promote the well-being of small farmers and their communities. PDR-certified palm oil is produced using farming practices that help to enhance soil health, conserve water, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to RSPO and PDR, there are several other sustainability initiatives and certifications for palm oil, including the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), and the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO). Consumers can play a role in promoting sustainable palm oil by choosing products that are certified by RSPO, PDR, or other sustainability initiatives. Palm oil is a widely used vegetable oil that has many different applications in the food, cosmetic, and biofuel industries.

RSPO offers four levels of certification with varying degrees of traceability.  Palm Done Right goes above and beyond the highest certifications.

Of these, only the Identity Preserved level is fully traceable, which means full accountability at each step of the process. Within the past decade, though, a handful of companies have chosen to go beyond RSPO Identity Preserved to create truly sustainable, organic, fair trade palm oil traceable throughout the supply chain.

Their goal: to ensure wellbeing of farmers, environment, communities and consumers.

Palm Done Right Farmers grow oil palms according to organic practices, either by reconditioning degraded land—often from old growth forest that had been clear cut and converted into pasture or crop lands—or by transitioning existing, conventional palm farms to organic.

Oil palms are unique plants. They produce palm fruits for up to 40 years, which makes them less of a burden on the soil than annual crops that are replanted year after year, and they bear fruit year round, which means a steady source of income for small farmers. Palm Done Right farmers nurture the soil with organic methods like leguminous cover crops (which fix nitrogen in the soil naturally), mulching and application of compost, which also increases palm fruit yields.

PalmDone Right® Palm Oil is certified organic by leading organic certification bodies such as USDA Organic and Control Union Certifications. This certification ensures that the palm oil produced under the PalmDone Right® movement is cultivated using organic farming practices without the use of synthetic chemicals or GMOs.

Source:  https://palmdoneright.com/

At Woodland Apothecary®, we only offer soaps with Palm Oil that have the RSPO certified Organic Palm Fruit Oil and Palm Done Right® certification.