Legitimacy struggles in palm oil controversies: An institutional perspective

Abstract

Palm oil (PO) is a product widely used in the food, energy and cosmetics industries. In fact, its high fat content and diverse range of uses combined with a low market price make PO and its co-product palm kernel oil particularly appealing (Hansen et al., 2015). Notably, while only 7% of the world's agricultural land is dedicated to the cultivation of oil palms, this land provides almost 40% of the global vegetable oil production (Rival and Levang, 2014). Oosterveer (2015) reports that approximately half of the products in a typical supermarket contain PO. Hansen et al. (2015, p. 140) maintain that PO is now 'the most produced and consumed vegetable oil in the world', and Choong and McKay (2014) predict that the total world consumption of PO will be approximately 43 million tons in 2020. However, PO is also subject to relevant controversies (e.g. Disdier et al., 2013; Oosterveer, 2015). For instance, because PO contains saturated fats, its high consumption has been related to obesity and cardiovascular diseases (Chong and Ng, 1991; McNamara, 2010) and, more recently, even to cancer (Chapman, 2017). Due to the rapid expansion of massive oil palm plantations, PO has then been associated with deforestation, damage to biodiversity and an increase of carbon released into the atmosphere (Reijnders and Huijbregts, 2008; Saswattecha et al., 2017). Additionally, PO production has been linked to violations of property rights, child labour and other human rights abuses (D'Antone and Spencer, 2014, 2015). The emergence of these controversies, which have jeopardised the legitimacy of PO, has resulted in a call for a different approach to its production, as illustrated by a growing interest in a more sustainable type of PO (Boons and Mendoza, 2010; Hansen et al., 2015). One of the most *Revised Manuscript-Clean Version Click here to view linked References

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