Tag Archives: Grocery store

I stand with RAN in calling on the US snack food industry to help stop the destruction of Indonesia‘s rainforests for palm oil.

The rainforests of Indonesia are some of the most biodiverse forests in the world and home to a number of endangered species, like Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran tigers, pygmy elephants and rhinoceros. These rainforests continue to be destroyed to produce palm oil so it can be used in the manufacturing of food products, including in snack foods and sweets that are some of America’s favorite brand name products.

I would prefer my crackers, chocolate, cookies, peanut butter, and ice cream not to come with orangutan extinction. That is why I am standing with RAN in calling on snack food companies to protect Indonesia’s rainforests and all of the people and wildlife who depend on them by cutting palm oil tied to rainforest destruction and social conflict out of their supply chains.

We have reached the last stand for Sumatran orangutans, but it’s not too late to save them.

Many Americans are being made into unwitting accomplices in the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests—which provide crucial habitat for a number of endangered species like the Sumatran orangutan—because palm oil is in half of all the products on their neighborhood grocery store‘s shelves. In the months ahead, we’re going to tackle this problem at its source.

RAN has just sent letters to 20 snack food companies—makers of some of the most popular brand name products in America—alerting them to the rainforest destruction and orangutan extinction in their supply chains.

Stand with us: Sign our petition and demand the snack food industry remove rainforest destruction from its products.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Palm Oil ~~ Activists and RAN

06/10/2013 Nativegrl77

For the last month, a team of Palm Oil Activists working with RAN has been going to grocery stores to put “Warning: this snack may contain orangutan extinction” stickers on products containing palm oil that may be tied to rainforest destruction. They’ve talked to store managers about the palm oil in the snack foods they sell, they’ve had conversations with their friends and family about the rainforest destruction that palm oil is driving, and they’ve generally been all-stars at putting the snack industry on notice.

Before we launch into our next round of calling out snack food containing destructive palm oil, we wanted to give you a quick update on where our campaign is at, and invite you to get in on the action: Sign up for the Palm Oil Action Team now and you can be a part of awesomeness like this:

In April, we sent letters to 20 of the leading snack food companies—makers of some of the most popular brand name products in America. We told them that we are giving them this one chance to come clean and commit to breaking the link between their snack foods and controversial palm oil production that is tied to rainforest destruction and human rights violations.

Since then, over 40,000 people have pledged to stand with RAN and demanded that the snack food industry take rainforest destruction and human rights violations out of our snacks. Hundreds of people have signed up to take action with us as part of the Palm Oil Action Team.

Our mission is to convince these 20 companies to commit to only purchasing palm oil that has been produced responsibly, without links to rainforest destruction and human rights violations. So far, nine of the 20 snack food companies responded to our letter. Eight of these companies have agreed to meet with us.

Eleven snack food companies have not responded to our letters. We need to let them know that they can not ignore this important issue any longer.

We’re off to a great start. But we need your help to get orangutan extinction out of America’s snack foods.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Trader Joe’s sells meat fed with drugs …Change.org

07/26/2012 Nativegrl77

Trader Joe’s: Stop selling meat fed with drugs!

Sign Melissa’s Petition

Trader Joe’s: Stop selling meat fed with drugs!

Started by: Melissa Lee

The night we rushed my 10-month-old daughter Ruby to the hospital is a night I will never forget, especially the terror of not knowing what was making her sick. It took doctors a very long week to figure out that it was Salmonella, and another two months for us to determine that it came from some ground turkey we ate.

Ruby spent 7 days in the hospital, one of 136 victims of a Salmonella outbreak last summer that led to a massive ground turkey recall. To make matters worse, that strain of Salmonella was resistant to several kinds of antibiotics, which made it more difficult to treat.

That’s why I’m urging you to sign my petition to Trader Joe’s asking them to sell only meat raised without antibiotics.

Like over 86% of Americans, I want to buy meat raised without antibiotics at my local grocery store. Big supermarket chains can play a critical role in changing the food system.

Trader Joe’s is a progressive grocery store with high standards for the food they sell (and is not where the meat came from that made Ruby sick). But in my community, many people shop at Trader Joe’s for products that are good for their health and good for the environment. Help me tell my story to Trader Joe’s, and encourage them to sell only meat raised without antibiotics.

I’m grateful every day that the doctors saved Ruby’s life, but we can’t take for granted the antibiotics that allow us to successfully combat serious infections.

80% of the antibiotics sold in the US are going to farm animals–used to make them grow faster and prevent disease in crowded, unsanitary conditions. In such an environment, “superbugs” can develop– and they can get into our food, as Ruby found out.

Whole Foods has already made the commitment to only selling meat raised without antibiotics. We need more grocery stores to step up to the plate.

Tell Trader Joe’s to be a leader in saving our antibiotics and making food safer.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Safeway to hero: you’re suspended

05/21/2012 Nativegrl77

Safeway suspended Ryan Young after he defended a pregnant women from being beaten — ask them to reinstate him now.

Sign Doug’s Petition

C –

What would you do if you were in a grocery store, you turned into an aisle, and you saw a man beating his pregnant girlfriend? Would you run for help? How long would that take? Would it be too late by the time security arrived?

Ryan Young worked at the meat counter of a Safeway supermarket. Reports say that when Ryan saw a customer push and kick his pregnant girlfriend last month, Ryan stepped in to stop the beating.

According to the press, Ryan’s actions earned him praise from his local police chief, but not from his employer. Instead of treating Ryan like a hero, Safeway claimed Ryan should have called security and suspended him without pay while it investigates the “altercation.” Pending the results of that investigation, Ryan could be fired for good.

Doug Castro is a security guard who shops at the Safeway where Ryan works, and he believes Ryan did the right thing by intervening. That’s why Doug started a petition on Change.org asking Safeway to lift Ryan’s suspension and give him backpay for the income he lost during his involuntary time away from work. Click here to sign Doug’s petition.

Ryan says one reason he felt so compelled to intervene is that he’s an expectant dad himself — his wife is 5 months pregnant. “We’re expecting a child,” Ryan says. “I’ve been suspended for just about a month now without pay for doing something I feel was right, that police said was right.”

Indeed, local Police Chief Ron Langford told reporters, “In my mind, in this case Ryan did the right thing.”

The police have already turned over security footage of the incident to prosecutors so that the man who beat his girlfriend can be charged, yet Ryan has been suspended for almost a month with no income. Doug believes that if thousands of people sign his petition, Safeway will bow to public pressure and put Ryan back on the job.

Click here to sign Doug’s petition demanding that Safeway bring back Ryan Young, an employee who was suspended after defending a pregnant woman.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Tim and the Change.org team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Are you connected to rainforest destruction? …Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

09/22/2011 Nativegrl77

Until recently, very few consumers had even heard of palm oil—much less understood that the expansion of palm oil plantations is one of the biggest causes of rainforest destruction in the world today.

Most people still have no idea that rainforest destroying palm oil is in roughly 50% of packaged goods sold on grocery store shelves.

Please share the infographic below to spread awareness about the problem with palm oil and help build public demand for sustainable options.

Awareness is the first crucial step to building necessary pressure on corporations like Cargill that will transform how business gets done in the palm oil industry and the fate of Indonesia’s rainforests.

Share RAN’s new palm oil infographic with everyone you know. Email it, blog it, tweet it, Facebook it!

Thank you for empowering the people in your life with the knowledge they need to protect the world’s forests.

For the forests,

Ashley Schaeffer
Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner
Twitter: @probwithpalmoil