Palm oil has become the poster child of environmental destruction. It's in everything from our snack foods to skincare, and tropical rainforests are being razed to make space for the world's skyrocketing demands. In the process, we're endangering our closest relatives and destabilizing our climate. But despite its bad reputation, palm oil may in fact be our best source of vegetable oil. So how should we be feeding the world's hunger for oil… without destroying the planet? If you want to know why palm oil is in everything, you have to look back to the 1990s. The food industry was in turmoil as research revealed the horrors of "trans fats". Eating more of these trans fats meant more bad cholesterol, and less good… which led to increased risk of heart attack. Most vegetable oils are made up of unsaturated fats. But these are relatively unstable and liquidy, making them rubbish ingredients for foods like margarine. To make these fats more versatile, they can be made more "saturated". But this results in those harmful trans fats. Fats your body has a tough time breaking down. Enter the magic fat: PALM OIL. "One of the real advantages of palm oil is that it's highly saturated, and what that means is that it's… very stable. So it doesn't go rancid very easily." This is Chris Chuck, a biochemical engineer. Palm oil comes from the fruit of this tree, which is imaginatively named the "oil palm". Both the fruit flesh and the kernel can produce oil. And palm oil provides a healthy alternative to trans fats: it's relatively thick and solid, and so can be used in a wide range of foods with long shelf lives, without the harms caused by trans fats. "And that can't really be replicated with any other oil." Aside from foods like cookies and margarine, you'll also find palm oil in the cosmetics aisle, whether that's in your mascara or your lipstick thanks to its texture and moisturizing properties. Oh, and don't forget it can give your soap its foam or your candles their flame. Overall, 68% of palm oil is used for food, 27% is used for cosmetics, detergents and other industrial products and 5% for biofuels. This versatility has seen demand for palm oil increase almost sevenfold since 1990. Originally from West Africa, 85% of the world's palm oil now originates in Indonesia and Malaysia. And according to the Indonesian Trade Ministry, palm oil has lifted millions from poverty. Meanwhile in Malaysia… "It's part of our culture, part of our identity. You know, our $50 note, our RM 50 note has a palm oil on it." Political scientist, Helena Varkkey Despite the plant's incredible properties, there's a catch. It only grows in the tropics – the location of the world's tropical rainforests. Our growing appetite for palm oil has meant deforestation. In a single decade, forests totalling the size of Israel have been lost. Destroying rainforests has displaced indigenous peoples, and labor abuses have been documented on palm oil plantations. Deforestation destroys habitats too, threatening hundreds of species – from Sumatran Tigers to the Orangutan, one of humans' closest relatives. But the rainforest's problems don't end in the rainforest. Peatlands are ecologically rich wetlands. But when they're dried out to grow oil palm, they can catch fire, creating air pollution and harming surrounding regions. Deforestation is also a leading cause of climate change – since the CO2 absorbing powers of trees and soils are lost. "A good amount of the deforestation for palm oil has occurred in what we call peatland areas. And peatlands are a very unique ecosystem and very important. It's a very carbon-rich ecosystem." So given the impacts of palm oil production, it's hardly surprising that many want to avoid it entirely. But… not so fast! Because the oil palm is an incredible overachiever. Every square meter of palm oil plantation typically produces this much oil. From the same land area, you'd only get this much rapeseed oil. And this much soybean. So replacing palm oil would mean using far more land. The oil palm's productivity is one reason it's often the cheapest vegetable oil that money can buy. The truth is: oil palm is the most efficient oil crop we have and palm oil demand will potentially double by 2050. One way of meeting tomorrow's thirst for palm oil would be to improve productivity. Research suggests that better agricultural practices could boost Indonesia's palm oil production by 60% on existing land, meaning we could increase production without destroying additional rainforest. Yields could be boosted by tools we already have – from mechanization to better fertilizers. As well as know-how like laying down palm fronds to slow evaporation and protect soils from heavy rain. New and improved oil palm trees could also help – created through selective breeding or genetic engineering. For example, the "dwarf palm", which stays shorter for longer, making it easier to harvest, while more trees can be packed into less land. Increased intensification could also have environmental drawbacks, but seems like a better option than chopping down more rainforest. So how can we ensure palm oil is grown without deforestation? Bodies like the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil certify producers that stick to key practices – from environmental protections to worker rights. But today, only about a fifth of palm oil is certified by the Roundtable. And while an improvement, these certifications don't completely eliminate deforestation – partly because it's still possible for poor practices to slip through the net. Plus the certification process and more rigorous practices all add to costs… that consumers might not yet be willing to pay. But how can we stop deforestation, if we don't even know where it's taking place? One way to see what's happening on the ground, is to watch from the skies. "Global Forest Watch" does exactly that – using high resolution, near real-time satellite images to identify deforestation. "And you can teach the computer how to recognize which one is forest. And then when it suddenly flips into a non-forest status." This is Andika Putraditama, who's at the World Resources Institute in Indonesia. The data are made publicly available. NGOs, governments and companies are able to compare the locations of plantations with changes in tree cover to track who is driving deforestation. "Traders and buyers of commodities, they can use this tool to identify which of their suppliers are not complying with their sustainability or no deforestation commitment. They can suspend them." But even with moves to halt deforestation and increased productivity, future palm oil demand might increase beyond what today's land can provide. So what if we could make palm oil, without the oil palm tree? "So that's a yeast which can make a little oil droplet inside the cells. Now the real advantage of this is that we can replace palm oil exactly. We can produce an oil, which is exactly the same." Now, Chris says this oil won't ever compete with palm oil on price, but hopes it could still play a substantial role in the future, even if that future is still years, perhaps decades, away. Ultimately, the problems with palm oil – and there are lots of problems with palm oil – aren't about the oil itself, which has amazing physical properties. They're also not about the oil palm tree, which produces so much more oil than other crops. They're about how we produce palm oil. And there are plenty of ways to improve that – whether it's more careful monitoring, producing more oil on the plantations we already have, or producing extra oil using completely new techniques. But all of these approaches could end up increasing how much we pay for our products. Given the costs to our planet and people, surely the price would be worth it. "The point here is being that palm oil can, but not that palm oil is sustainable… yet." "If you personally want to do something about palm oil in your daily life, a lot of the people I spoke to suggested that looking out for certified products is a good place to start, as well as getting in touch with companies to see how they're sustainably sourcing their palm oil. Oh, and you're going to want to make sure you're subscribed to Planet A. We have new videos out every Friday."