Would you stop eating Nutella to preserve the environment?

Have you ever thought about a diplomatic crisis caused by… Nutella?

The French Minister of Ecology, Ségolène Royal, made an appeal on television in her country, asking that the hazelnut cream is no longer consumed.

According to her, the product is made using palm oil, which would be contributing to forest deforestation. The oil – which has no smell or taste – is what gives Nutella its creamy appearance.

“We have to replant a lot of trees because of deforestation, which also causes global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because the product is made with palm oil”, she said during an interview with Canal+, last Monday (15).

This week, the Italian giant Ferrero, responsible for manufacturing the cream, manifested itself through a statement, where it states that it is aware of the environmental impacts caused by palm oil, and saying that it obtains the raw material in an adequate and responsible way.

The production of the palm trees from which the oil is extracted is carried out in the tropics and, in fact, involves the devastation of tropical forests. According to research, these plantations damage biodiversity and increase the carbon footprint in the atmosphere.

The impact of the declaration did not stop there. According to Time magazine, Italy’s Minister of Ecology retaliated Royal’s statement, saying it should “leave Italian products alone”🇧🇷

According to the Guardian, about 80% of the oil used to make Nutella comes from Malaysia. The rest is imported from countries like Indonesia and Brazil.

And even Greenpeace got into the story. To Quartz, the group stated that it is opposed to the boycott of products containing palm oil, stating that the measure would not be effective in resolving problems in the oil production chain.

The Business Insider newspaper says that France has a relationship of “love and hate” with Nutella. Although they are responsible for the consumption of 26% of the global production of the product, in 2011, there was an attempt to tax palm oil by 300%, because of its role in forest deforestation and the increase in obesity rates.

The law was rejected in 2012, by 186 votes to 155.

After all the controversy, the minister apologized on Twitter and stated that she “recognizes the advances” of the Nutella manufacturer in relation to its environmental commitments.

Mille excuses pour la polemique sur le #Nutella🇧🇷 D’accord pour mettre en valeur les progrès.

— Ségolène Royal (@RoyalSegolene) June 17, 2015

So it’s.

Article published in Brasilpost.com.br