Politics of the Plate: Destructive Palm Oil, and a Drastic Dining Drop

Going Ape over Rainforest Destruction

Thanks to palm oil, Indonesia has earned itself a spot in the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records: The country officially boasts the world’s fastest rate of deforestation.

Late last year, Greenpeace issued a scathing report describing the massive amount of clearcutting that’s occurring in Indonesian rainforests to make way for new palm plantations. The devastation is being fueled by the burgeoning demand for palm oil, which is predicted to double between 2000 and 2030. Last month, the environmental group put increasing pressure on the companies when demonstrators, dressed as orangutans (whose habitat is being destroyed to make way for oil palms), clambered up the façade of the Unilever building in London. Greenpeace hoped that exposing the rampant destruction would prod major palm oil users such as Unilever, Cadbury’s, and Nestlé to take action.

It looks like the tactic worked. This week, the giant consumer goods conglomerate Unilever, the single largest buyer of palm oil, announced that it will start buying from certified sustainable sources this year, and that all of its oil will be certified by 2015. The firm also voiced its support for a moratorium on any further deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil.

Now let’s hope the other corporations try to ape Unilever’s actions.

And You Think You’re Having a Bad Day

Pity your favorite restaurateur. The National Restaurant Association just came out with its Restaurant Performance Index (RPI), a measure of the financial health of the industry nationwide. President Bush may still be describing the current economic meltdown as a “slowdown,” but foodservice folk beg to differ. In March, the RPI dropped to its lowest level in history, with nearly two thirds of restaurants reporting a drop in business. And the future doesn’t look any brighter. The Expectations Index, which measures owners’ six-month outlook, also fell to its lowest level on record.

So why is it that I still can’t score a 7:00 Friday reservation at that popular little spot up the street?