LUSH cosmetics washes their hands of poor’s fate

by Tim Wilson, February 17, 2010

Through a friend I received a copy of LUSH Cosmetics press release today regarding their new “Jungle Soap” which is palm oil free. The press release is part of their new promotion to sell Jungle Soap and highlight the claimed impact of palm oil on orangutan populations. All revenue from Jungle Soap will go toward the Australian Orangutan Project.

On face value LUSH’s campaign looks like a legitimate demonstration to care for the globe and draw customers. There’s just one problem. A deeper reading of their press release shows that instead of using palm oil they’re using other oil seeds.

As Sustainable Development has highlighted in the past the attacks on palm oil are bogus when the reason for forest clearing isn’t specifically for palm oil, but to grow crops by South East Asia’s poor to secure a sustainable livelihood. Palm oil is just the crop of choice because it is low cost and high yield.

By switching to other oils, like rapeseed, LUSH is actually using a lesser environmentally friendly oil that delivers a much lower yield – meaning more of the world’s resources will be used to produce less output.

And the cost of the decisions of discerning Australian cosmetic consumers against products with palm oil ingredients will simply be South East Asia’s poor who’ll lose out on income.

But these days I doubt anyone is surprised to see rich country consumers washing their hands of the interests of the world’s poor when they can be seen to be supporting a ‘good’ cause without having to watch the impact on those who suffer the consequences.

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