Indonesia is the world’s biggest palm oil producer, with an estimated 7.6 million women working in its fields, about half the total workforce, according to the female empowerment ministry. In much-smaller Malaysia, the figures are harder to nail down due to the large number of foreign migrants working off the books.
As the decades passed, palm oil became an essential ingredient for the food industry, which saw it as a substitute for unhealthy trans fats. And cosmetic companies, which were shifting away from animal- or petroleum-based ingredients, were captivated by its miracle properties: It foams in toothpaste and shaving gel, moisturizes soaps and lathers in shampoo.
The day she was attacked in 2017, she said the boss took her to a remote part of the estate, where her job was to ferry wheelbarrows laden with the bright orange palm oil fruits he hacked from the trees. Suddenly, she said, he grabbed her arm and started pawing her breasts, throwing her to the jungle floor. Afterward, she said, he held the ax to her throat.Then, she said, he stood up and spit on her.
While Indonesia has laws in place to protect women from abuse and discrimination, Rafail Walangitan of the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection said he was aware of many problems identified by the AP on palm oil plantations, including child labor and sexual harassment.“We have to work hard on this,” he said, noting the government still has a long way to go.
Many families living on plantations struggle to earn enough to cover basic costs, like electricity and rice. Desperate women are sometimes coerced into using their bodies to pay back loans from supervisors or other workers. And younger females, especially those considered attractive, occasionally are given less demanding jobs like cleaning the boss’ house, with sex expected in exchange.
A powerful global industry group, the Consumer Goods Forum, published a 2018 report alerting the network’s 400 CEOs that women on plantations were exposed to dangerous chemicals and “subject to the worst conditions among all palm oil workers.” It also noted that a few local groups had cited examples of women being forced to provide sex to secure or keep jobs, but said few workers were willing to discuss the sensitive issue.
That includes Indonesian companies like London Sumatra, which withdrew from the RSPO last year after the association cited it for a series of labor abuses. London Sumatra told the AP that it adheres to labor laws and takes “the health of our workers very seriously.”
Oh , so now your concerned about women... big joke here..
Alarming, disturbing, and horrifying! Will major brands address these issues? Or will they ignore them and place profit over human rights since these abuses occur upstream in the value chain? unileverusa HUL_News discoverRB CP_News colgateuniv The world will be watching!
Could you do a follow up story on what we as consumers can do?
Thank you for this powerful story.
What a heartbreaking and horrifying story. As stated in the article, all of the public outcry against palm oil that I have heard has been about the environment and habitat destruction for orangutans. As if the regular abuses of these girls and women does not matter. Truly sad.
Justins Does your nut butter jars come from these sources? Your site says they come from a mixed supply chain, but it's not specific enough. Asking for your customers.
and it kills orangutans 🦧
colleen_benn And destroys the habit of apes.
Love and Lather Soaps Buy handmade local palm-free soap! DM for details
It ends up on Biden's back
Great article ! 👍🏻
Well, we could be focusing more on american products, but Trump is the only president to even push that agenda. And you all probably hate him.
This is horrendous.
Follow Newsmax or OAN
now do nike and such, you know sweatshops .... child labor china and such
Gotta be a better way - gotta find better resources. ( ? )
The images seem pretty propaganda.. ish not photojournalism. Why don’t we see the conditions theses people are working in or faces? These give me no sense of place or purpose.
Some of the same companies pawning off their products as “cruelty-free” with regard to animal testing. That claim is often a stretch and sometimes an outright lie. But it’s a huge moneymaker💰
Oh... and they’re stripping rainforests of hundreds of thousands of acres.
Palm Oil is the blood 🩸 diamond 💎 of the beauty business. Hold companies accountable by finding more out about the ingredient & don’t purchase products made with the the ingredient. This includes sodium lauryl sulfate, to name one ingredient.
'Please send your extortion checks to AP in order to get positive news articles next week. We need money.'
May dear sisters, do your cosmetics come from sources that do not discriminate other women? If so, you use your buying power to say NO to women abuse in raw material source production Gugu_WNcube happ_zenge VascoDaGappah MuzvareBetty
Its also the main reason for deforestation in the Amazon
And Nutella?
Worse, it it’s used in garbage foods. 🤮
Real journalism, not partisan propaganda puppetry pretending.
Palm oil is in a ton of coffee creamers too. There are good ones out there without it though, if you were curious.
Ban it. All of it.
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