Palm Oil vs. PKO

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I have an import expert 3 houses down from me, and palm oil has come up a few times - especially when he travels there every summer. The palm industry does fed some people. It also starves others - especially the traditional indigenous people who live in and/or from the bounty of the rain forest.

The soil under the rain forest is unique, and planting one type of vegetation en masse will not support the maintenance of that unique structure so the monsoons will end up causing frequent and massive landslides.

Many native people believe palm is their only salvation, but it will be their eventual ruin unless someone makes the effort to educate them in land management and sustainable practices. There's a million more complex issues as well - but my eyes start to glaze over after hearing him (my neighbor) talk for an hour.

I chose to forgo palm. Sometimes I start to think like kchaystack - that my little bit of use won't make a difference. But it does. Just like my single vote for a presidential candidate - it does matter. It may not change the world, but it changes my world.

In an 18 month period, I've used over 100 pounds of animal fats instead of palm. And I'm about halfway through another 50 lb block of lard. My skin believes that palm contributes little but hardness to a bar, and that lard is king. My conscience says its better to use a product from an animal already dead, then to give any more reason to destroy living habitat and life.
 
I've never made a soap from lard, but it's something I'd like to try now.


Welcome to the lard side.

FWIW, I don't use palm in my soaps. I have tried palm soaps and some have been nice, some have been extremely drying. I guess it just depends on the amount of palm in the formula. I've never had any issues with lard or tallow soaps, though. Actually, that's not true, I didn't like the smell of an unscented tallow based soap. I had to rebatch it and add some scent to it to mask the tallow odor. I've never had that issue with lard, though. Which is odd, since several people here have complained about the piggy smell.
 

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