Palm Oil - the dreadful ingredient.

Fen1

Please read this this note.

I first posted this on the Arms Forum, but thought it might do better here.

I quote from Friends of the Earth:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_..._16122005.html

Palm oil is found in one in ten products on supermarket shelves and its production is associated with rainforest destruction and human rights abuses in south-east Asia. Friends of the Earth and the world's leading orang-utan conservation groups released a report in September, "The Oil for Ape Scandal" that revealed that oil palm plantations were wiping out the habitat of the orang-utan in Indonesia and Malaysia, threatening the species with extinction [2]. Palm oil is found in a diverse range of products from bread, crisps, margarine and cereals to lipstick and soap.

I quote from the Green Consumer Guide:
http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=1922

Palm oil, a cheap source of vegetable fat, is used to extend the shelf-life of chocolate. Demand for the crop has led to rainforest destruction and pollution problems, and is often harvested by poorly paid workers in oppressive conditions.

..................

As MSErs we know what we can do by protesting individually and as a group. Please read the following article for more information on rainforest destruction - and importantly - what we can do to stop it:

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

In the next week I will write template letters that you can adapt and print off to send to MPs/Government Ministers/Heads of Supermarkets. For the price of a few stamps each, we can make a difference.

I just need to figure out a way of uploading the letters so that they can be printed out. Any techie advice out there?

thescouselander

I'm not sure Friends of the Earth etc have thought this one though (as usual). Lets suppose we all stop buying palm oil from these unsustainable sources tomorrow. What will happen:

A) The nasty human rights abusers and rain forrest destroyers will pack up and go home because they cant sell any more palm oil.

or

The nasty human rights abusers and rain forrest destroyers will start growing an alternative crop which can be sold for more profit. The abuse and destruction of the rainforrest will continue.


As I remember the last time this sort of thing came up the rain forrests were being destroyed so people could riase cattle to supply beef for McDonalds hambergers.

Fen1

Yup, the rainforest will continue to be chopped down. Human rights will be abused. We are totally and utterly absolved of any responsibility as to what our money does through a long chain.

What about bananas? Do those cheapies from Tesco really taste so good when there is a distinct possibility that the child who grew and picked them is going blind from the chemicals they are forced to use?

Cheap ingredients are cheap for a reason, whether its bananas or palm oil: dire working conditions and environmental devastation. It should be remembered that this year marks the anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act. Plenty of people before then didn't give a damn about where the sugar they put in their tea came from either.

lynzpower

You know that reliance on Palm oil is waning when our freinds as Asda are pledging to remove it!!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2132140,00.html

thescouselander

Fen1 wrote: »

Yup, the rainforest will continue to be chopped down. Human rights will be abused. We are totally and utterly absolved of any responsibility as to what our money does through a long chain.

What about bananas? Do those cheapies from Tesco really taste so good when there is a distinct possibility that the child who grew and picked them is going blind from the chemicals they are forced to use?

Cheap ingredients are cheap for a reason, whether its bananas or palm oil: dire working conditions and environmental devastation. It should be remembered that this year marks the anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act. Plenty of people before then didn't give a damn about where the sugar they put in their tea came from either.

Well, I couldn't tell you anything about tesco banannas because I dont like them so I've never bought any.

I still stand by my original comment though. This course of action is doomed to failure unless the money being made through the production of palm oil is replaced by something else. Otherwise the people cutting down the rainforrest will just move to a diferent crop which they can sell.

Perhaps, since the rainforrest is a resource from which we all benifit, we should all be paying for its upkeep. How about taking some money from some of these carbon neutralisiung schemes and using it to pay for the restoration and maintenance of the rainforrests. Thus the palm oil farmers could recieve an income to replace what is being made from palm oil currently. Of course, they would only be paid to do this if they stopped human rights abuse etc.