Fashion is home-made products, and the flagship product of the moment is coconut oil. Renowned for its nutritional value when on our plate, it is also used in many cosmetics and hygiene products, ranging from deodorants to hair masks. But Fanny Agostini explains on Europe 1 that behind the exploitation of this "organic" and "ecological" oil hides disastrous social and ecological consequences.

Before, she presented Thalassa, on France 3. But that was before. Since then, Fanny Agostini has settled on the farm, in Boisset in Haute Loire. And every morning on Europe 1, she talks about ecology, health, nutrition. This Tuesday, she tells us of her disillusionment around a product yet flagship ... coconut oil.

In our hygiene products or cosmetics, homemade or bought in supermarkets, even in our plates, the big trend of recent years is in coconut oil.

But coconut oil is FANTASTIC, for hair, skin, against mosquitoes, in the food https://t.co/jtrkYZLW37

- Tata Kyline (@__hy_) August 24, 2019

Renowned for these benefits, this oil with an exotic fragrance is less eco-friendly than it looks. Beyond the controversies over the nutritional values ​​of this oil, mainly composed of "saturated" fatty acids (92%), it is the social and environmental impact of its exploitation that becomes particularly worrying. And this controversy is such that it could be compared to that which hangs around the exploitation of palm oil, considered as a real environmental disaster.

Producers exploited

The western frenzy for coconut encourages the cultivation of Copra, the exploitation of the kernel of the shelled coconut. Only problem, the demand is such that its production is made more and more by means of monoculture, and this, to the detriment of the food plantations and populations who are totally enslaved to harvest it.

And this exploitation of the coconut pays little to producers since 65% of the 3.5 million coconut farmers earn one dollar a day. A production which thus favors the extreme poverty of the populations.

Polluting import

What also weighs heavily in the balance is the CO2 emissions to import these products that come from far away: Indonesia, French Polynesia or even India, the main producing countries. If each of us manufactures our products based on coconut oil, this trend may no longer be ecologically sustainable for a long time.

Even from organic farming, coconut oil is not a product so "green".

Consume "LBS"

To do better, we can therefore ask the question of the geographical distance between us and the production lines each time we consume. The goal is to try to consume as much as possible "LBS" - local, organic and seasonal - the only way to be sure that our act of purchase will have no negative impact on the planet and the producer.

Only problem for the moment, coconut oil has not yet found his replacement, the watchword when it comes to consume, so it's moderation.