For most people, choosing a cooking oil depends on taste preferences, intended use or health considerations. Richly flavored oils like extra virgin olive oil or unrefined coconut oil are best saved for uses where that flavor shines through, while more refined options, like canola, are useful for things like frying, inclusion in baked goods, or other times you don’t want to impart too much flavor to the food. People worried about saturated fat might avoid butter, lard, coconut and palm oil, and instead turn to oils like olive, avocado or flaxseed for their heart-healthy omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
But while we’re used to thinking about cooking oils in terms of culinary value or health, we’re less used to thinking about their sustainability. This is a big gap, considering how much land is used for growing the seeds that most oils are derived from: in 2022, 337 million hectares of cropland worldwide were devoted to oil crops, just over 20 percent of the world’s total cropland.
