The great American philosopher Homer Simpson once said:
“Here’s to beer: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”
Replace ‘beer’ with ‘Nutella‘ and that brings us up to today’s predicament.
We all know Nutella is basically food therapy. Who among us hasn’t come home from a bad day and thought oh fuck it, I’m having a spoonful, then shiftily stuck the same spoon back in for another when judgy-pants housemates weren’t looking because that shit is just too good?
Well, a French minister is urging you to put down that spoon and stop eating Nutella altogether, because it contributes to deforestation.
The unfortunate truth of it is that she’s right. In an interview on the popular French programme Le Petit Journal on Monday night, Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal said:
“We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it’s made with palm oil.”
“Oil palms have replaced trees, and therefore caused considerable damage to the environment.”
Turns out, the French go mad for Nutella. It’s like their Vegemite or something. They get through 100 million pots of the stuff every year, and only the courts prevented some poor sod being stuck with ‘Nutella’ for an actual first name.
Ferrero, which makes Nutella, gets 80% of its palm oil from Malaysia, where the cultivation of palm oil has caused extensive tropical forest deforestation, while the rest is sourced from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Brazil.
According to reports, Ferrero issued a statement saying that they use only “100% certified sustainable palm oil for its products manufactured at Villers-Ecalles,” with no mention of the half a dozen other factories round the world.
Map Source: QZ
There’s been various ‘boycott Nutella’ campaigns over the years thanks to its use of palm oil, but as one jar of Nutella sells every 2.5 seconds, it’s going to take a showing of global collective willpower the likes of which the world has never seen.
Image: Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
