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If a product is bad for the environment and our health, should we avoid using it?

NOT NECESSARILY. In today’s complex world, such products may also serve important, yet seemingly contradictory roles. They may be key to preserving nature and enhancing wellness.

Consider this piece about wildlife destruction I wrote with Dr. Steve Greenspan:

Rod’s wife, Ming, grew up on the island of Borneo. At age five, Ming first saw a bulldozer tear up virgin rainforest to make room for a palm tree plantation. 

However, you’re wrong if you think Ming made a cinematic, childhood vow to protect the earth as a toddler. On the contrary, little Ming was tired of eating fresh papaya and fearful of the wild monkeys that stole schoolbooks. Like a pig-tailed schoolgirl anywhere, Ming’s immediate response was envy of the tractor driver’s impact on the world. Such a childhood reaction is perfectly logical– but to understand, you must forsake stylized notions and dig into the details.  

As a grown woman, Ming values the forest’s magic. Yet her history makes it easier to recognize a new generation of myths about her island homeland and the palm fruit grown there. Today, many organizations focus superficially on the evils of cleared rainforest and the resulting ‘unhealthy’ (higher saturated fat) palm oil. Such groups ban palm in their own foods and try to eliminate it from developed-country supermarket shelves.

But consider how the food system actually operates. A company trying to improve food considers three aspects:

1. Food taste and producibility
2. Ingredient cost
3. Health, environmental, and social impact

To develop healthier food, innovators must deliver products successful in all three dimensions– and oil blends including palm are often critical. Unique chemistry makes palm key to maintaining food taste and producibility: it’s especially stable for frying, precisely delivers target dough crispiness, and more. Palm’s price maintains food affordability as it’s far less expensive than most oils (it’s currently over one-third cheaper than so-called liquid oils, for example.) And palm is not that high in the saturated fats that national health guidelines tell us to avoid. In short, remove palm from food scientists’ options, and you’re likely to find much food delivered to supermarket shelves becomes less healthy. 

And how about the environment? Counter-intuitive, perhaps, but avoid palm oil and kill orangutans. Being so cheap, any oil that devastated rainforests deliver will be consumed somewhere in the world. And if palm’s not selling in environmentally aware nations, it’s selling in developing countries that care less about the forest. 

If we completely eliminated all palm oil, vegetation on Borneo would be lush, a heat sink for the world would be more effective, and wildlife protected. Yet global hunger would be worse and we’d have fewer tools to promote healthy eating. It’s unclear if such a world would be better or worse than today’s. 

So, let’s focus on developing our best future. We need Business to engage. Help balance the needs of all stakeholders by weaving sincerity and caring into the fabric of what they do. And that means, you, as a consumer, should support developed-country palm and transparent, positive supply chain development.

Borneo wildlife is not consistently well-managed today. Yet in her last trip home, Ming brought the kids to visit orangutans. The lanky animals swung lazily along tree branches to a mid-afternoon snack of wild coconuts– which they crushed in powerful hands before bringing the pieces to their lips. That spectacular sight was one sign that, even as we must do better, we’re getting some things right. 

As we wrestle with the challenging social and environmental problems that surround us, don’t settle for stereotypes and superficial analysis. Embrace the complexity of our interconnected world. There is value for business and society when truth is uncovered and decision-making increases value created for all. 

Steve and Rod are collaborating to develop a combined summary of the economic, social, and biological systems impacting our food, initially focused on fats and oils. Resulting learning can help architect policy debate, target community and research effort, and empower business to profitably deliver healthier food. Perhaps we’ll be able to #ReverseAging by increasing life expectancy faster than time passes. We certainly have the technology to do so.

So like this article to raise attention. And if you’re seriously interested, reach out. We’ll send you a white paper on the benefits of our approach. As economist Gary Yohe, who shared the Nobel Prize in 2009 said when he advised and endorsed this project, “Integrating our knowledge about a complex topic helps us to develop deeper insight.”

Safeguard your future today. And position yourself to thrive for your children tomorrow. 

Rod

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Dr. Rod Wallace​ is an economist, consultant, and speaker who helps businesses make more money by solving society’s problems. A Fulbright Fellow, he has led multi-organization billion-dollar initiatives worldwide and partnered with a Silicon Valley pioneer to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society. 

Rod speaks about how to integrate social responsibility into business to maximize profit and purpose. He highlights digital technology’s impact on society and the strategies and tools with which business can solve our big, systemic problems.

Contact Rod at ​info@RodWallacePhD.com​.