Everything You Need to Know About the Environmental Impact of Your Favorite Cooking Oils

Natural cooking oils are a mainstay in our kitchens. Rich, silky, and with various uses, the current guard of unadulterated oils is helping to make meals healthier, tastier, and crispier than ever before. But are your favorite cooking oils actually sustainable?

The answer is...it's complicated. Determining the sustainability of a seed, nut,

fruit, or vegetable-based oil requires analysis of sourcing and agriculture, production, and food mileage emissions.

Fortunately, while it may be challenging to determine the exact footprint of our go-to cooking oil, there are certain easily trackable factors that offer certain options an eco edge.

Here, nine popular cooking oils and what you should know about their environmental impact.

Avocado is delicious and ubiquitous, but it comes with a sizable environmental impact. One avocado requires 60 gallons of water to grow, and

one study notes that avocado production in 2018 alone required the water equivalent of around 2.82 million Olympic size swimming pools.

Unfortunately,

studies have found that much of the avo oil on the market is either rancid or mixed with other oils, so be sure to invest in a brand you trust!

Though born of a Mediterranean climate, olive oil requires a wealth of water to cultivate.

In terms of agriculture, though, sunflowers are often grown as a monoculture crop—which can increase the need for pesticides, promote disease in bees—and more, so always opt for organic.

Safflower oil is a low-impact option. The heat-stable cooking oil comes from the thistle-y plant safflower plant and is recyclable and biodegradable.

Sesame oil is a staple for its flavorful dish addition. That said, it's not at all sustainable. Sesame oil comes with high carbon emissions

The issues with coconut oil are largely down to biodiversity. In fact,

a study from the University of Exeter claims that the oil is potentially more harmful than palm oil, affecting 20 threatened species per million tons of oil produced.

Peanuts are a particularly common oil crop and are grown all over the world.

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