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Ashley Schaeffer - who has written 73 posts on Rainforest Action Network Blog.
Whether you’re one of the 3,200 companies that do business in California with at least $100 million in worldwide gross receipts, or a consumer that buys products from anywhere other than your local mom and pop shops, you better check this out. Effective this month, a new law called the Transparency in Supply Chains Act [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, January 24 2012
Last week, over 40 Minnesota residents made a citizens’ arrest of Cargill, Inc. in front of the company’s downtown Minneapolis office at the Grain Exchange. I walked away from the event struck with inspiration and hope. Why? In addition to being amazed that so many enthusiastic people braved below-freezing weather to hold Cargill accountable for [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, December 13 2011
Since joining RAN’s forest program over two years ago, I have read and written about the many dire consequences of industrial scale palm oil plantations in Indonesia: one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans destroyed, gross human rights abuses and labor conditions, and social conflict between [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, December 2 2011
As the 9thAnnual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting wrapped up on the island of Borneo, the crisis stemming from the uncontrolled expansion of palm oil plantations into rainforests and communities reached a fever pitch. Consider this: In the few days that RAN’s four staff-member delegation attended the RSPO meeting in SE Asia, the [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, November 22 2011
Update 11/25/11 10:08am Despite key commitments to work with the RSPO to meet consumer demands, several key RSPO members are missing at this year’s RSPO meeting in Sabah, Malaysia. Has anyone recently seen Kellogg’s, McDonald’s or Girl Scouts USA? They were last seen buying palm oil with Cargill and making assurances to the public that [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, November 18 2011
In an interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz of HUTAN notes that oil palm plantations cover a staggering 14,000 square kilometers of Sabah, one of the two states in Malaysian Borneo and the number one producer of Malaysian palm oil. This is equal to 20 Singapores planted solely with palm! In the same interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, November 10 2011
“Before we had a happy life,” Ms. Gaong said she tells her grandchildren. “Now it’s a difficult life. There’s nothing left for them.” The recent story in the New York Times titled “Clashes Between Tribes and Agribusiness Increase in Malaysia” tells an all-too common story. It’s not a happy story. It’s the story of farming [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, November 7 2011
Unlike 2008′s showdown, nobody from RAN attended this year’s Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) shareholder meeting to hold CEO Patricia Woertz’ ass to the fire. Nonetheless, ADM did not get away without responding to tough questions about the company’s irresponsible palm oil supply chain. ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors with operations in more [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, October 31 2011
Environmental and human rights groups in the Netherlands are welcoming the Dutch government’s rejection of the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) for failure to meet minimal accepted sustainability principles. The ruling from the Ministry of Environment found that the MTCS fails to recognize or uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples and certifies timber from the [...]
Continue reading...By Ashley Schaeffer, October 21 2011
Congratulations to Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva for winning this year’s Brower Youth Award! These two intrepid Girl Scouts leaders are paving the way to ensure that Girl Scout cookies are palm oil-free, and not compromising some of our most endangered forests and animals. Check out just how inspiring they truly are in this Rikshaw [...]
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Genetically Modified Crops Tap a Wellspring of Protest via @juliamoskin @nytimes http://t.co/mjEevQxj #occupyfood
By Ashley Schaeffer, January 26 2012
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