Palm oil — the ubiquitous ingredient for all things spreadable, from toothpaste to ice cream — is now the commodity consumed by Americans that contributes most to the loss of tropical forests.

That’s the conclusion of a new analysis by Global Witness, an environmental watchdog organization, and Trase, a nonprofit that analyzes supply chains. Cattle products, especially from Brazil and Australia, are a close second. Colombian coffee had a big footprint, too.

Researchers looked at import data and deforestation rates and found that palm oil bought by Americans may have caused 103,000 acres of deforestation, mostly in Indonesia. That’s an area half the size of New York City, and a conservative estimate because it doesn’t count all imports of manufactured products that contain palm oil.

I want to focus on palm oil today because we’ve known about this problem for a long time. Palm oil is environmentally destructive, grown on vast plantations after rainforests have been flattened and burned. And after years of hard-won progress, the deforestation associated with palm oil production in Indonesia is ticking up again.

“Palm oil has been a pervasive problem for a while,” said Ashley Thomson, a senior policy adviser at Global Witness. “What this analysis shows, in the other commodities as well, is just how complex deforestation is.”

Why the tropics matter

Deforestation anywhere is terrible for the climate and biodiversity. I’m bringing your attention to the loss of tropical forests specifically because it has more lasting consequences than deforestation in most places.

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