Of course, Nutella works to ensure all their palm oil has some veneer of sustainability, but the fact is the more of the planet that eats it, the more palms need to be planted.
> Ferrero... reached its goal of using only palm oil that has been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil... Nutella’s palm oil comes mostly from Malaysia, as well as from Brazil, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, according to reports.
> Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy group, told Quartz in a statement that it opposes a boycott of products with palm oil because “a blanket boycott of this agricultural crop will not solve problems in its production.”
https://qz.com/430450/no-you-dont-have-to-boycott-nutella-fo...
ensuring there is profitability in every jar!
While it is better to buy from RSPO than non-RSPO sources it is far from sustainable.
I checked out the orangutans in Sumatra and you can see the palm plantations encroaching into the jungle. Locals told me they consume a lot of the river water and makes the entire area warmer. Although the area had the fortune of being a natural reserve, I still saw trucks grabbing aggregate from parts of the river that were not included. Oh and if you were in SEA around 2 years ago, the ridiculous haze was from people burning wetlands to plant more palm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asian_haze
Not sure if that's accurate but that's what local folks told me.
I'm also quite puzzled about your conclusion of buying palm oil while also stating many of the negative effects.
What you are saying is that there is no point of trying to improve anything because it will have little effect. With that attitude surely no changes will be made.
You are right that it's more efficient to produce palm oil compared to alternatives. But that's not really a good argument when the production is done the way it is in these corrupt countries.
The implication could be that the energy spent convincing people to not eat Nutella might be better spent on other strategies for solving the problem.
I personally have no idea what the best approach is -- I just wanted to point out another plausible interpretation of the comment.
As for Catsmull, he may be coming from a problematic context but that doesn't mean he doesn't have valuable insight.
Those days are long gone. Though I hear in europe they still get Nutella with sugar and glass jars. I'm not sure if they escape the Palm oil there as well.
I grew up eating Nutella sandwiches in the USA, at a time when you couldn't find it anywhere except specialty Italian grocers. The current product found on shelves in the USA is drastically different experientially speaking from what I was fed as a kid. It's not very good anymore IMHO.
No it's palm oil as well in Europe.
I have used it to replace Nutella several years ago.
It is probably a bit costlier but since I only need a pot / year, that's not really an issue.
So this would be some kind of Nutella-like spread sold under some local/artisanal brand, made from like 80% hazelnuts + chocolate, instead of the 60% sugar + 20% palm oil + 20% hazelnuts and chocolate in Nutella. (I imagine ingredients vary somewhat from brand to brand though; check the label.)
It’s more expensive because higher hazelnut and cacao content are more expensive ingredients than sugar or palm oil. It’s also less spreadable and much less sweet.
A web search turns up e.g. http://foodloversodyssey.com/2011/07/history-chocolate-in-tu...
It is a simple google search away : http://www.nocciolatausa.com/
I bought it in Europe so it looks like it is widely available.
>How is it better?
No palm oil for one. On top of the environmental problems, it looks like it is not great for your health either, so I avoid it.
The composition in general looks more healthy than Nutella and the taste is great so I did not really overthink this.
Also, what %age of palm oil production is by western corporations?
Not sure how accurate these stats are but here are some numbers: https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/hs92/1511/