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You may have heard that palm oil is a natural, plentiful, and inexpensive vegetable oil that’s useful for everything from cooking to cosmetics to a biofuel substitute to fossil fuels.

So why don’t we use palm oil in our goat milk soap? The simple answer is that while palm oil, in itself, is not harmful, the process of extracting and producing palm oil is destructive to our planet, and harmful to indigenous people and animal species.

Palm oil production destroys rainforests. Palm oil comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. In order to meet the demand for palm oil, large swaths of tropical rainforest in Indonesia, Malaysia, and other locations in Southeast Asia are destroyed to make room for palm plantations. Destroying rainforests depletes soil, eliminates wildlife habitats, and removes the natural means of absorbing rainfall, leading to more frequent flooding in surrounding areas.

Palm oil production destroys biodiversity. Rainforest destruction means wildlife habitat destruction, including the habitats of endangered species. Once a rainforest is destroyed, it can’t be replaced, and these endangered species have no place to live. Pesticides and other chemicals used to control rats and other pests in the plantations also poison other species. As these species become extinct, they are replaced by more widespread, general species and we lose natural biodiversity. According to the World Wildlife Fund, “palm oil poses the most significant threat to the widest range of endangered megafauna – including tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans.”

Palm oil production harms indigenous communities. Although palm oil production provides employment for some members of local indigenous communities, the tradeoffs often far outweigh the benefits. In many cases, land is developed into oil palm plantations without any compensation for or consultation with the people who have long occupied the land. These communities are displaced, as are the traditional, cultural practices that they have developed over thousands of years. Perhaps most alarmingly, the palm oil industry profits from forced and child labor. Amnesty International reports that children as young as eight years old are working long hours in hazardous conditions to produce palm oil.

While there are those who believe that truly sustainable palm oil production may be an option in the future, for now we choose to use only ethically-sourced, high-quality oils, like extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil, naturally refined shea butter, expeller-pressed food grade coconut oil, and expeller-pressed castor oil.