--- title: Nutella Boycott: Palm Oil Plantations Are Behind Ségolène Royal Remarks description: Oil palm is primarily produced in the tropics, and farmers have to clear a large swathe of forest when they want to build a new planation. canonical: https://time.com/3924488/nutella-palm-oil-science-environment/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-17T18:17:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:52.831Z article:section: Science og:title: Nutella Boycott: Palm Oil Plantations Are Behind Ségolène Royal Remarks og:description: Oil palm is primarily produced in the tropics, and farmers have to clear a large swathe of forest when they want to build a new planation. og:url: https://time.com/3924488/nutella-palm-oil-science-environment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fc52d56a510d7a8/698854ed2dce01c7559e4362/nutella1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: nutella og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nutella Boycott: Palm Oil Plantations Are Behind Ségolène Royal Remarks twitter:description: Oil palm is primarily produced in the tropics, and farmers have to clear a large swathe of forest when they want to build a new planation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fc52d56a510d7a8/698854ed2dce01c7559e4362/nutella1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Ingredient Is Why a French Minister Wants to Boycott Nutella > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Wildfires, Beetles and Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): Wildfires, Beetles and Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wYhUFMcF.m3u8) (4:46)  _Published 2009-09-14. In this Climate Central report, Dr. Susan Prichard explains how tree-killing bark beetles flourish in warmer temperatures, leading to severe wildfires_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 17, 2015 6:17 PM UTC  Jars of Nutella are displayed on a shelf at a market on August 18, 2014 in San Francisco. Jars of Nutella are displayed on a shelf at a market on August 18, 2014 in San Francisco. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 17, 2015 6:17 PM UTC A French minister launched an international spat this week with her [declaration](http://time.com/3924050/french-ecology-minister-nutella/) that consumers should avoid their favorite Italian chocolate spread if they want to help save the environment. “We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it’s made with palm oil,” French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal told television channel Canal+ on Monday. Royal’s Italian counterpart fired back quickly, demanding that she “leave Italian products alone.” But aside from the complicated diplomatic reasons behind the feud, Royal is right to call out palm oil as a key cause of deforestation and a contributor to climate change. Oil palm, the species of palm that produces the edible vegetable oil, is primarily produced in the tropics, and farmers first have to clear a large swathe of forest when they want to build a new plantation. The results can be devastating for biodiversity. Oil palm plantations don’t even come close to supporting the same amount of wildlife as the forests they replace. For example, approximately 75% of bird species and 80% of butterflies are lost when forest land is converted to palm oil plantation land, according to one [study](http://www.cell.com/ecology-evolution/abstract/S0169-5347%2813%2900107-9). “It’s the single greatest immediate threat to tropical forests and wildlife,” said David Wilcove, Princeton University professor of public affairs and ecology and evolutionary biology. “It is the leading cause of deforestation and has been for a number of years.” Beyond ecology, deforestation also contributes to climate change. Forests act as carbon stores that hold carbon that is released into the environment when deforestation occurs. Oil palm plantations simply can’t compete with the carbon-storing ability of forests. This is all bad news for the environment, but boycotting Nutella likely wouldn’t help very much. There’s still a good chance you would find it in the cookies you eat, the shampoo you use to wash your hair, or in one of the thousands of other products that rely on it. “It’s very difficult to avoid it,” said Wilcove. “It’s not like dolphin-safe tuna where there’s a very discrete product that you can decline to purchase.” Finding companies that requires their suppliers to produce palm oil sustainably should be one part of minimizing the environmental impact of oil-palm plantations, Wilcove says. Palm oil farmers can rely on land that has already been cleared and not plant in areas with peat soil, which serve as carbon stores themselves. If farmers must clear forest, they can at least avoid areas with endangered species. There’s even an organization, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, that develops standards on how to cultivate the oil sustainably and monitors its production. And that’s what’s so strange about Royal’s remark. Nutella’s manufacturer, Italian chocolate-maker Ferrero, has taken significant steps to guarantee that its palm oil comes from sustainable plantations and has even been described as a “mover and shaker” worth emulating in this area by environmental group Greenpeace. “The most important thing that consumers can do is to pressure the large purchasers to insist that their suppliers not create any new plantations on critical lands,” Wilcove said. So perhaps consumers ought to buy more Nutella, not less. ## Transcript >> I find it amazing that such a small non- descript little beetle can reeks a tabic on forest systems. >> A research scientist at the University of Washington Dr. Susan Prichard studies the effects of disturbances like insect outbreaks and wildfires on forests. Over the last two decades, more trees in western forests are being killed by bark beetles and there have been more fires. But, is climate change to blame? >> Each one of these, yellow sap concentration is an actual site where a mountain pine beetle as board into the bark of the logical pine and then it will lay eggs and its larvae will actually feed on the cambium tissue, the living tissue of the tree. So here, each one of the centers is an example of the tree trying to pitch out the beetle. The actual sap of the tree has [ unk ] that are toxic to the beetles and then also they are physically pushed the beetle out of the tree. >> Wow. So this tree is literally just fighting for its life. >> It is fighting for its life. That's not an overstatement actually. So, I can tell that unfortunately for this particular tree, it's not winning the fight. >> Beetles thrive in warmer weather. Mild winters, earlier springs and longer summers mean more beetles. >> So there is a climate linked for mountain pine beetle for sure. And what we're noticing in Washington State even today that in the last 20 years with warmer climate, warmer [ unk ] climate, there has been an increased incidents of mountain pine beetle. >> A resident of the quaint town in Winthrop in Central Washington, Dr. Prichard also says, warmer temperatures across the Western US have made drought stressed trees more vulnerable to beetle attack. >> Now if you have a vigorous tree, it will have enough defenses to pitch out some beetles so the beetles will attack the more weakened trees and maybe kill them. In an outbreak there could be, you know, acres upon acres of host trees where that there would be weakened, maybe drought, stressed, dense trees for these beetles to build up enough of a population that then they could start spreading into both weakened trees and healthy trees. >> Scientists have already made a definitive connection between warming temperatures and increase fires in the west. The connection between beetles and fire is less understood but many scientists like Prichard believe the combination of beetles, warming and drying forest will pre- dispose Washington State Forests to more fire. This year, more than 800 wild fires ignited in Washington State well above the yearly average. Prichard says in an outbreak of bark beetles starting in the 1990's let accumulations of dead trees priming the forests for a big fire event, which is exactly what occurred in August 2006 when the so- called tripod complex fire swept through the Okanogan Wenatchee forest destroying 180 thousand acres and costing $ 80 million. >> I actually saw the initial big smoke flumes. And if you were to look across the valley floor, you would not have been able to see even the trees. >> For Prichard, large fire events have been part of the landscape for millennium, vital to the renewal of the forest. She's concern about the future with an increase frequency of hot, dry weather, beetle outbreak and big fires. >> It actually reset the stage. It is a very natural cycle in this ecosystem. However, we are also facing unprecedented changes and climate. Here's an example of a Douglas first seedling, and you can see that it, you know, smaller in stature, it's very shallowly rooted in the soil and it's vulnerable to drought so as the top soil dries. It might dry out and die. So if we have more high severity fire then it might mean that trees that ever existed here for hundreds of not thousands of years are not able to success or able to produce. >> But since understanding the effect of disturbances on forest is her passion and work, Dr. Prichard has no plans to leave Central Washington anytime soon. They choose to live in a fire prone landscape. I think that's an important thing for people to actually take in to consideration when they wanna live in the great outdoors. 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