Valentine Candy Alert

Did you buy chocolates today for someone you love?

Take a quick second to scan the ingredients for palm oil and palm kernel oil. These controversial ingredients are no symbol of love.

A majority of the world’s palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, where thriving rainforests—home to ancient Indigenous communities, majestic creatures, and flora of every shape and size—are torn down by the palm industry and replaced with monoculture plantations, some of which use slave labor.

While being a “slave to love” might sound appealing to some, no one wants slave labor in their Valentine candy…or rainforest destruction or species extinction for that matter. Alert Valentine chocolatiers to the problems with palm oil.

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Posted on 14 February 2012

Tags: agribusiness, candy, Cargill, chocolate, chocolatiers, Indonesia, malaysia, palm kernel oil, palm oil, Rainforest Agribusiness, rainforests, valentine, valentine's day

About the Author

Ashley Schaeffer’s Mendocino County Northern California roots introduced her to environmental and animal rights activism at a very young age. She has spent many years living and working in South America for the World Learning Institute and researching Indigenous resistance to the oil industry in the Amazon. She has worked on social and environmental justice campaigns for seven years at Amazon Watch, Green Corps, Greenpeace and now as the Rainforest Agribusiness campaigner at Rainforest Action Network.

Read other posts by Ashley Schaeffer