ATput Bretons and Normans, go your way: this article may offend your sensitivity. For several weeks, Canadians have had a problem with butter. Too hard, it does not spread well on the toast and takes time to melt in the pan.
What the local media now call “Buttergate” started from a tweet Posted Feb 5 by cook and cookbook author Julie Van Rosendaal. “There is something wrong with our butter supply (…). Have you noticed that it is no longer soft at room temperature? “ she asks.
Many Internet users replied in the affirmative: for breakfast, you now need tungsten biscotos or, failing that, fall back on jam.
Something is up with our butter supply, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Have you noticed it’s no longer s… https://t.co/mPgOR7iS5c
In a column published on February 20 on the website of the Canadian daily The Globe and Mail, Julie Van Rosendaal suggests that an increase in butter consumption since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to changes in the diet of livestock – with ranchers seeking to optimize their yield and production. According to her, the main suspect in this epidemic of too hard butter is palm oil.
Canadians have not escaped confinement and the spread of teleworking, and they too have cooked more home-cooked meals. Result: the demand for butter is up 12% over the year 2020, according to Dairy Farmers of Canada (representatives of dairy producers), reports the BBC site. This is where palm oil comes in. Administered to cows as a dietary supplement, it has been used for decades to increase their milk production and fat content. Since last summer, hundreds of Canadian farmers have used this technique.
The Dairy Processors Association of Canada, the national voice of the sector, created in 2003, assured the site Real Agriculture that there has been no change in the production of butter, nor in the national regulations on ingredients.
“An ethically reprehensible practice”
Little research has been done on the impact of palm oil on dairy products. Nonetheless, experts claim that butter made from milk from cows fed palm oil has a higher melting point and therefore can be more difficult to spread at room temperature.
“It is estimated that about 30% of Canadian dairy farmers adopt this practice to meet their lucrative production quotas”, says Sylvain Charlebois, scientific director of the Agri-Food Analytical Sciences Research Laboratory at Dalhousie University, in a column published in Le Journal de Québec. And to add:
“There is nothing illegal about giving palm oil to dairy cows, and nothing prevents dairy farmers from doing so. But it’s palm oil made halfway around the world, and we all know the impact of this oil on the environment. “
Oil palm cultivation is believed to be responsible for 17 to 27% of deforestation in Indonesia, and 80% in Malaysia
Indeed, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), oil palm cultivation is responsible for 17 to 27% of deforestation in Indonesia, and 80% in Malaysia. The cultivation of this plant, which grows only in the equatorial zone, conflicts with dense forest. In addition, the high concentration of saturated fatty acids in palm oil can cause cardiovascular disease, but these same acids (which are found in other foods such as cheese or meat) increase good cholesterol.
For Sylvain Charlebois, “Such a practice [de la part des producteurs laitiers] would be ethically and morally reprehensible, and it could jeopardize the reputation of the industry ”. “Since Canadians now subsidize dairy production, they deserve the best butter the industry can provide. Above all, with such an observation, the moral contract between consumers and industry is broken ”, he concludes.
Dairy Farmers of Canada responded by noting that palm oil products “Help give cows energy” and that’“No adverse effects have been identified following their use in food rations” cattle. The lobbyists group adds, however, that it intends to assemble a committee of experts (made up of various players in the sector, including consumers) to address these concerns.