The Blight on Palm Oil
Jun. 28th, 2014 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breezeshadowToday, I looked at the ingredients of some Lindt Hello chocolate I had bought at the store.
To my horror, it contained palm oil.
For those unfamiliar with it, palm oil is yet another foreign product that first-world countries have latched upon, and thus significantly increased the demand for. Last time it was quinoa, which likely was not as bad as feared.
Palm oil, on the other hand, is used in multiple industries, many of them large-scale (ex. soap). To meet this demand, rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Colombia are being removed to plant the palm trees. Needless to say, this has a disastrous effect on an already fragile environment.
As if that weren't enough, there is also evidence that the big companies running these plantations are threatening and evicting indigenous populations from their native lands, leaving them displaced from their livelihood and home. We don't need to look across the oceans to know how badly that goes.
I sent Lindt an online request to consider not using palm oil. I encourage all of you to do the same for any company that you buy from that uses it. You're welcome to use this:
I am writing to you to express my disappointment over Lindt's use of palm oil in their Hello chocolate brand.
Palm oil is a commonly-used oil mired in many social and environmental concerns. The increased demand in recent years has pushed for a significant growth in palm plantations. Clearing and burning of rainforests not only removes these precious environments, but also produces tons of carbon emissions in the process. This forest loss places endangered animals, such as the orang-utan, at further risk.
These plantations and practices do not only affect the environment. There is evidence that rather than providing local jobs for indigenous communities, some palm oil companies instead take land from these peoples without proper compensation and will even drive them away, displacing people from their home and livelihood.
There are alternatives to the use of palm oil in cooking, such as soybean oil, which can be produced in the United States. Please consider moving away from the use of palm oil in your Hello brand and other products, for the sake of the environment and indigenous communities around the world.
Thank you.
Sources
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90714122
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/su-srs100512.php
http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?file=%2f2010%2f5%2f3%2fnation%2f20100503152551&sec=nation
http://www.economist.com/node/16423833?story_id=16423833
http://www.internal-displacement.org/south-and-south-east-asia/indonesia/summary
http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/palm-oil-rspo/publication/2012/losing-ground-report-indigenous-communities-and-oil-palm-devel
http://www.grida.no/_documents/orangutan/full_orangutanreport.pdf
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/319/5867/1235
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31biofuel.html?_r=0&ei=5088&en=e653a375e67e8e49&ex=1327899600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1404003652-zhEmueJN9+tSynPgEyBzGg
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/03/03/grains-meeting-transfat-idUSN0318207820070303"
Changing it to fit your company, of course.
There are enough awful things going on in the world. We don't need to make it worse by demanding things that aren't necessary. Chocolate in particular is already mired in rainforest destruction; there is no need to add palm oil to the problem.
Feel free to signal boost this.
Tschuess.
To my horror, it contained palm oil.
For those unfamiliar with it, palm oil is yet another foreign product that first-world countries have latched upon, and thus significantly increased the demand for. Last time it was quinoa, which likely was not as bad as feared.
Palm oil, on the other hand, is used in multiple industries, many of them large-scale (ex. soap). To meet this demand, rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Colombia are being removed to plant the palm trees. Needless to say, this has a disastrous effect on an already fragile environment.
As if that weren't enough, there is also evidence that the big companies running these plantations are threatening and evicting indigenous populations from their native lands, leaving them displaced from their livelihood and home. We don't need to look across the oceans to know how badly that goes.
I sent Lindt an online request to consider not using palm oil. I encourage all of you to do the same for any company that you buy from that uses it. You're welcome to use this:
I am writing to you to express my disappointment over Lindt's use of palm oil in their Hello chocolate brand.
Palm oil is a commonly-used oil mired in many social and environmental concerns. The increased demand in recent years has pushed for a significant growth in palm plantations. Clearing and burning of rainforests not only removes these precious environments, but also produces tons of carbon emissions in the process. This forest loss places endangered animals, such as the orang-utan, at further risk.
These plantations and practices do not only affect the environment. There is evidence that rather than providing local jobs for indigenous communities, some palm oil companies instead take land from these peoples without proper compensation and will even drive them away, displacing people from their home and livelihood.
There are alternatives to the use of palm oil in cooking, such as soybean oil, which can be produced in the United States. Please consider moving away from the use of palm oil in your Hello brand and other products, for the sake of the environment and indigenous communities around the world.
Thank you.
Sources
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90714122
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/su-srs100512.php
http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx/?file=%2f2010%2f5%2f3%2fnation%2f20100503152551&sec=nation
http://www.economist.com/node/16423833?story_id=16423833
http://www.internal-displacement.org/south-and-south-east-asia/indonesia/summary
http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/palm-oil-rspo/publication/2012/losing-ground-report-indigenous-communities-and-oil-palm-devel
http://www.grida.no/_documents/orangutan/full_orangutanreport.pdf
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/319/5867/1235
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31biofuel.html?_r=0&ei=5088&en=e653a375e67e8e49&ex=1327899600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1404003652-zhEmueJN9+tSynPgEyBzGg
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/03/03/grains-meeting-transfat-idUSN0318207820070303"
Changing it to fit your company, of course.
There are enough awful things going on in the world. We don't need to make it worse by demanding things that aren't necessary. Chocolate in particular is already mired in rainforest destruction; there is no need to add palm oil to the problem.
Feel free to signal boost this.
Tschuess.
