Supermarket Sleuths: Are they hiding rainforest destruction in our supermarkets?
It is not every day that we here at RAN get to announce the launch of a major new strategy… but today is one of those exciting days!
The Rainforest Agribusiness campaign is launching a retail strategy, which will focus on holding ADM, Bunge, and Cargill responsible for the rainforest destruction that they are sneaking into the products that we eat and use every day.
Over 90 % of the palm oil that is currently being grown goes directly into the kind of products that we use every day—candy bars, cake mix, toothpaste, soap, and so much more. Take a look at the products in your home—chances are, you’ll see palm oil, palm fruit oil, palm kernel oil, or palmitate. And if it contains any of these, then it comes from areas that where tropical forests have been burned and indigenous and frontline communities have been displaced to make way for the massive monocrop plantations.
We need your help to identify what products contain palm oil, and what are palm oil free alternatives.
Go to www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org to see the new Retail Strategy webpage. On May 5th, this page will go live to everyone—not just our supporters—and you will be able to enter the barcode numbers of products that either contains palm oil or palm oil free alternative products.
Every time you enter a product that has not been entered before, you will get points, which will be tracked on the webpage. The people, or groups, who enter the most points will not only be doing the most to help us locate the products destroying the rainforest and their alternatives, but will also win cool RAN gear.
So! As an Understory faithful, you get a head start. Check out the products in your home and supermarket and write down the 12 digit barcode number on the products that either contain palm oil, or are palm oil free alternative products. All the details of what to do are online now at www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org.
The easy products will get identified quickly, so get them in early.
This is only the first step of a major new campaign push for Rainforest Ag. This will be the first step in a path that will lead to a major new strategic launch in September—targeting a major food or soap manufacturer that uses palm oil. And we need your help to decide who that will be. To learn more about how this fits into our new long term strategy, go to www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org.
2 Responses to “Supermarket Sleuths: Are they hiding rainforest destruction in our supermarkets?”
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April 26th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I did my shopping today. I was looking for Palm oil in the ingredients. I did find a few packages of food stuff that I sometimes buy, had palm kernnel or palm fruit oil listed. In the video, I think you said that there is no sustainable source of palm oil, right? What about organic products that list organic palm oil? Is it possibly from S.E. Asia and is it grown on deforested land?
April 28th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Good question. Organic palm oil is grown in two different plantations– one in Ghana, the other in Colombia. Although this palm oil could be said to be slightly better– for example, the lack of pesticides means that there is less pesticide run off– there are still major problems. Land acquisition is still a major concern… these plantations have been implicated in some serious human rights abuses, including forcibly kicking indigenous people off their land. Also, due to climactic considerations, palm oil plantations have to be grown on land that was once rainforest. It is really best to avoid palm oil all together if possible.