Palm oil touches our lives every time we take a trip to the supermarket. Palm oil and its derivatives are used in a ubiquitous array of packaged foods, including ice cream, cookies, crackers, chocolate products, cereals, breakfast bars, cake mixes, doughnuts, potato chips, instant noodles, frozen sweets and meals, baby formula, margarine, and dry and [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Last week, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) contacted Cargill employees in over 20 countries to alert them to the company’s ties to rainforest destruction and orangutan extinction. The email urged employees to watch a recent eye-opening prime time NBC news story profiling the imminent extinction of orangutans due to unchecked palm oil expansion in Indonesia and [...]
Continue reading...Monday, August 20, 2012
Is protecting a small fragment of intact natural forest habitat amidst a sea of oil palm plantations enough to combat extinction? Two rare, critically endangered Sumatran rhinos were recently captured on hidden camera in Leuser National Park, Indonesia for the first time in 26 years. This came as a surprise to wildlife conservationists, as there [...]
Continue reading...Monday, June 4, 2012
In what has been called the biggest climate decision of the year for the Obama Administration, the Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil industries are flexing their lobbying muscle to overturn a crucial, science-based decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In January of this year, the EPA issued an initial finding that biofuels made [...]
Continue reading...Monday, May 7, 2012
Although there are no major fires still tearing through the Tripa peat forest in Sumatra — the densest remaining Sumatran orangutan habitat in the world — updates from our allies on the ground tell us that Tripa is still gravely at risk. With one or two small fires still breaking out each day, combined with ongoing [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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 [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, January 26, 2012
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...Tuesday, 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...Friday, 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...Thursday, 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 [...]
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Thursday, May 16, 2013
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