Characteristics of the vegetable oil debate in social-media and its implications for sustainability

Elena Candellone; Alberto Aleta; Henrique Ferraz de Arruda; Erik Meijaard; Yamir Moreno

doi:10.1038/s43247-024-01545-x

Characteristics of the vegetable oil debate in social-media and its implications for sustainability

Elena Candellone
, Alberto Aleta^*
, Henrique Ferraz de Arruda
, Erik Meijaard
, Yamir Moreno

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The global production and consumption of vegetable oils have sparked wide-ranging and often emotive discussions on sustainable development, especially on social media. Here we analyze over 20 million tweets related to vegetable oils to explore the key factors shaping public opinion. Coconut, olive, and palm oils dominate social media discourse not proportionally to their global production. Olive and palm oil discussions remarkably correlate with Twitter’s (now X) growth, while coconut shows more bursts of activity. Discussions around coconut and olive oils primarily focus on health, beauty, and food, while palm oil draws attention to pressing environmental concerns. Virality is related to environmental issues and negative connotations. In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, this study highlights the multifaceted nature of the vegetable oil debate and its disconnection from scientific discussions. Our research sheds light on the power of social media in shaping public perception, providing insights into sustainable development strategies.

Original language	English
Article number	391
Number of pages	10
Journal	Communications Earth & Environment
Volume	5
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01545-x
Publication status	Published - 21 Jul 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

E.C., A.A., H.F.A., E.M. and Y.M. acknowledge the financial support of Soremartec S.A. and Soremartec Italia, Ferrero Group. Y.M. acknowledges partial support from the Government of Aragon and FEDER funds, Spain through grant E36-23R (FENOL), and by MCIN/AEI and FEDER funds (grant PID2020-115800GB-I00). A.A. acknowledges support from Grant RYC2021 033226 I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. We acknowledge the use of the computational resources of COSNET Lab at Institute BIFI, funded by Banco Santander (grant Santander UZ 2020/0274) and by the Government of Arag\u00F3n (grant UZ-164255). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Ferrero Group
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
PRTR
European Union NextGenerationEU
Soremartec Italia
Agencia Estatal de Investigación	MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, RYC2021 033226, PID2020-115800GB-I00
Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras	E36-23R
Banco Santander	UZ 2020/0274
Gobierno de Aragón	UZ-164255

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s43247-024-01545-xFinal published version, 2.25 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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Characteristics of the vegetable oil debate in social-media and its implications for sustainability

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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