Save Orangutans – demand that only sustainable palm oil is used by Supermarkets/Manufacturers!
- Target:
- Supermarkets & Manufacturers using palm oil in their products
- Region:
- United Kingdom
Boycott Palm oil until we have answers!
I have been writing to Manufacturers and Supermarkets in the UK in the past 3 months who are known to use palm oil in their products and are in the top 100 for UK sales, and the news is not very positive and most of them have omitted to answer the questions I posed, particularly in providing me with a list of their products containing palm oil and whether it is sustainable or unsustainable palm oil that they use. Unsustainable palm oil plantations are the biggest threat and killer of the Orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra – these plantation Companies burn and tear down the Rainforests (the Orangutans habitat), kill and torture them. There is a supply of sustainable palm oil out there and it is not being used, so there is no excuse!
I now refuse to use ANY of their products, where possible and instead use products from Companies that do not use palm oil at all until there is proof of sustainable palm oil use. I do not want to be consuming this unhealthy saturated fat.
RSPO – is it just a cover?
The RSPO (Round table for Sustainable Palm oil) was set up in part by one of the biggest users of unsustainable palm oil in the World, in order to manage the promotion and changeover to sustainable palm oil for Companies. It appears to be doing good work, but I do feel that some of the members could be hiding behind their membership and saying that they are ‘doing their bit’ when they are actually, as a Company, doing very little. This does not mean everyone, but some of them, so do not take their membership as being the be all and end all – it is not and we need more proof.
It’s all about time
Time is actually running out for the Orangutan’s and many other animals, such as the Sumatran Tiger. If deforestation for the planting of unsustainable palm oil plantations is not stopped, then the Orangutan will be extinct within around 10 years!
Most Manufacturer’s, Supermarkets, and the RSPO itself do not have strict time scales that they commit to, to make the required changes (change to sustainable palm oil). This is no good – we want some promises and action before the Orangutan is extinct! We need them to tell us WHEN they are going to do something.
It is essentially all about greed……..
1. Our consumer greed for tasty and cheap products. (do we really need to eat biscuits and long life bread anyway?)
2. The Manufacturer’s greed for selling in bulk, their budget products, using palm oil as a cheap bulking agent.
3. The Palm oil Companies greed for selling quickly grown, cheaply produced and lucrative oil.
Listing Palm oil as ‘Vegetable oil’.
The law regarding ingredients listings, is an EU law, and allows manufacturers to list palm oil within the general term ‘vegetable oil’ making it difficult for us to avoid palm oil – please see my other petition for information on this very important subject and sign my other petition here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-orangutan-demand-labelling-of-palm-oil.html
I ask that all Supermarkets/Manufacturers voluntarily show palm oil as an ingredient in their products, instead of using generic terms such as ‘vegetable oil’.
I also ask them to become a member of the RSPO if they are not already, and that they stop using harmful unsustainable palm oil.
The production of unsustainable palm oil is harming our environment and Orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra.
If palm oil must be used in a product, then please seek and use sustainable palm oil as a substitute, with a strict timescale for the change over, as soon as possible.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Save Orangutans – demand that only sustainable palm oil is used by Supermarkets/Manufacturers! petition to Supermarkets & Manufacturers using palm oil in their products was written by Sandra Dean and is in the category Animal Welfare at GoPetition.