As the article below highlights, the trade in palm oil is devastating the forests of Indonesia and Malaysia, critical habitat for orangutans and other species, home to indigenous peoples, and an important portion of the earth’s living lungs (the forests that give us oxygen!)
Palm oil is popular in commercial food production because it is stable, tasteless and cheap. But it is an unhealthy ingredient with a terrible cost: its production may entail the extinction of the orangutan within the next ten years, if nothing is done. Producers cut down forest in order to plant palm trees in monocrop plantations which cannot support the same diversity of life as the forests; orangutans are often injured or killed in the process, and robbed of their habitat. Orangutans are only found on Borneo and Sumatra, and their numbers are plummeting.
It is a detestable system that bows to profit at all costs. Our demand for cheap processed food, and the unwholesome manufacturers who peddle it to us, are killing ecoystems on the other side of the world. STOP palm oil! Boycott it in your own life and demand that manufacturers stop using it! You will only gain in health from avoiding all the products that use it (okay, soap is a different matter, but soap can be made from other oils which don’t entail forest destruction). We don’t NEED shit like Oreos or other processed sweets, they are patently unhealthy, and our pleasure in eating them shouldn’t outweigh the needs of other beings to simply LIVE and be let alone. If you have a sweet tooth, try making your own vegan sweets from (organic and fairtrade) ingredients that won’t harm you or other animals.
Here’s the article, again brought to my attention by the Earthsave Canada newsletter:
http://www.londoncommunitynews.com/2012/06/saving-the-orangutan/
More information:
Such a great post! This issue really needs highlighting more. In the UK there is a charity called the RSPB and they launched a range of palm oil free toiletries. Also I fancy making some of those sweets!
Thank you Anthony! I really appreciate it! I’m glad to hear about the RSPB, and should mention that there are a number of small businesses which have committed to going palm-oil free (or who never used it in the first place) here in North America as well.
Thank you, Vegan Activist! I agree with Anthony — palm oil is so devasting, this issue should be highlighted and shared.
Thank you Ellie! I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for this post. I REALLY hope you continue writing once in a while and your artwork looks GREAT!
Thank you, rude recycler! I really appreciate the positive feedback.
Thank you for the great post. It is scary that even raisins are now coated in palm oil and peanut butter has extra palm oil added. So sad.