Theres an ingredient that features in almost half of everything you buy from the grocery store. Its invisible, you cant taste or smell it, but it has magic properties. Its used to pre-cook your instant noodles, to make your ice cream smooth, to stop chocolate from melting, to make your shampoo foam, to keep your lipstick solid.

Its called palm oil and in addition to being a wonder ingredient to which the world has become increasingly addicted, its incredibly destructive.

For decades, palm oil production has been a driver of deforestation in tropical rainforests in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. While estimates vary, Indonesia lost about 289,000 acres of forest to palm oil production every year between 1995 and 2015, according to a 2017 study . The same study estimated that between 1990 and 2010, palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia quadrupled, from about 8.6 million acres to about 31.9 million acres.

Clearing land and burning peatlands to make room for oil palm trees is a huge source of carbon emissions and air pollution, and has contributed to devastating forest fires in Indonesia . It also destroys the habitat of many of the worlds most critically endangered species, including elephants and orangutans.