Palm Oil and International Standards

The idea that companies can’t control their supply chains is ridiculous. They don’t control the labor and environmental conditions in them because they don’t want to and because they don’t care. They may not in fact be able to immediately enter a factory and transform it, but that’s because they have set up a decentralized system that favors their interests by shielding them from legal responsibility for what happens there. But when international pressure develops, it turns out that the corporations have tons of control. That is what’s happening with Cargill and their palm oil sourcing. Palm oil is a tremendously destructive product because it has led to the deforestation of vast swaths of southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. That has led to significant habitat reduction and ecological degradation without actually providing very many jobs for workers, with many of what jobs do exist being dedicated to child labor. Palm oil is however quite profitable for the elites who control this land. So it has continued without stop, turning huge areas of these nations into an endless monoculture.

In response to outrage from environmental organizations, western companies have agreed to palm oil supply standards. And with the Malaysian agricultural giant IOI ignoring them as they continue to deforest Indonesia, Cargill is now suspending new contracts with the company. Now, this is just Cargill protecting its own self-image and critics note that the company’s demands of IOI amount to almost nothing. Cargill certainly doesn’t care about the planet’s ecological health and it really doesn’t care about maintaining Indonesian rain forests. But the fact that Cargill felt compelled to do anything and that other companies have done more to cut their ties with IOI is an example of how outside pressure can make differences in supply chains and their labor and environmental impacts and an example of how one can pressure western corporations into taking some level of responsibility for what happens in sourcing their products.