The palm oil crisis has its roots in numerous aspects, making it difficult to eliminate. For week 1, I decided to sign petitions, because people have better chance of making an impact in larger numbers. I selected three different petitions, each with a different focus. The first one was about protecting orangutans from the harms of deforestation due to the demand for palm oil. The second one was a petition to send letters to Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and Colgate-Palmolive, as well as other companies that use palm oil and remind them that their polices are not helping to stop the deforestation due to their products. The last one I signed was to speak out against Indonesia’s plan to give money to a biofuel subsidy that would increase the rate of deforestation. For week 2, I am creating a post to educate others about my issue. Initially I was going to write a post with a picture or two, but I came across a powerful video, so I decided to let it do more of the talking. The difficulty of a social media post is getting people to take the time to read the post or watch the video instead of just scrolling past. I should be more aggressive about my issue and reach out to more people in the hopes they will want to combat the issue with me. Since, I have started my action plan I feel like I am not doing enough for my issue. It is difficult since a majority of the industrial issues are passed overseas. Regardless, I have a hard time not wanting to find something more justice oriented to do, even though I am at a loss for what that may be. I foresee the challenge of detecting palm oil in products because palm oil can be under numerous names. I also think it could be difficult to find sustainable alternatives to the products containing palm oil. I am interested to see if I will try to just completely give up palm oil containing products or if I will be eager to find sustainable alternatives.
