Tag Archives: Palm oil

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Cargill needs to come clean … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

07/11/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

With palm oil in half of all products for sale in US grocery stores, we have the right to know the true cost of its production.

Cargill is the #1 importer of palm oil into the US, but the company refuses to be transparent about who it does business with. For instance: Is Cargill still sourcing from the notorious palm oil company Duta Palma even though this company is embroiled in severe social conflicts with communities near its destructive palm plantations?

Dozens of people are gathering outside Cargill’s offices today in Minneapolis to ask the company to come clean about its operations.

Will you help us amplify their voices by writing to Cargill now and demanding transparency around its “no-trade list”?

In the past, Cargill has said Duta Palma was on its “no-trade list,” but the company has never made this list public and RAN has reason to believe Cargill’s policy of sourcing from any company that pays membership dues to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil allows it to get palm oil from Duta Palma.

Please email Cargill CEO Greg Page now and ask him to come clean.

In 2009, Rainforest Action Network released a case study documenting illegal rainforest burning by Duta Palma on community lands used by the people of Semunying Jaya in Borneo. Duta Palma doesn’t have permits to operate these plantations and police refuse to do anything about this blatant land theft and environmental destruction.

So community members took action themselves.

A few weeks ago, members of the Semunying Jaya community seized several pieces of machinery, trucks, bulldozers and chainsaws, then barricaded the doors of Duta Palma’s palm nursery, shutting down operations. The community members are now facing possible criminal charges for standing up for the health and safety of their home.

We have the right to know: Is Cargill profiting from the oppression of the people of Semunying Jaya by buying palm oil from Duta Palma? Please demand transparency now.

For the forests,

Ashley Schaeffer

Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

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Extinction doesn’t get a second chance … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

06/25/2012 Nativegrl77

Click on the photo above for even more info

Extinction doesn’t get a second chance.

Endangered orangutans are hovering on the very edge of extinction. Palm oil companies have deforested so much of the forests orangutans depend on for survival, they literally have nowhere left to go.
Mankind’s closest relative urgently needs our help.
Wild orangutans are nearly extinct and need us to take a stand. You can help this important work by chipping in just $10 today.
The footage below, which I filmed in Borneo, shows a pregnant orangutan trapped inside an area of active palm oil development on the border of Tanjng Puting National Park. Because orangutans cannot swim, she cannot reach the protected lands on the other side of this river, condemning her to inevitable death by starvation or at the hands of plantation workers.

Watching her broke my heart.

Palm oil companies prioritize profit over life. Horrific scenes like the one captured above must come to an end.

RAN is pushing big industry buyers like Cargill to take responsibility for the very real impacts of their supply chains, their role in land conflicts affecting Indigenous communities, and the role palm oil is playing in species extinction.
By donating just $10 today, you are joining with hundreds of other donors to make sure that we are saving orangutans, like the one above, from extinction.
Deforestation in Indonesia has reached crisis proportions — but a narrow window of time remains to stop this historic tragedy before it is too late. During the past decade orangutan populations have decreased by about 50% in the wild. This means that without drastic intervention, orangutans may soon be extinct as biologically viable populations in the wild.

RAN is working hard to pressure the Indonesian government and palm oil industry giants like Cargill to end this tragedy once and for all.

Please be generous. Extinct orangutans don’t get a second chance.

		For the forests,
		Ashley Schaeffer Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

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Will the EPA Choose Political Influence over Science?

06/12/2012 Nativegrl77

Tell Obama’s EPA not to cave to industry pressure on palm oil and climate change.

The EPA recently confirmed that the destruction of rainforests for palm oil is having a devastating impact on our climate. In fact, this deforestation, in large part for palm oil plantations, has led Indonesia to become the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, just behind China and the United States.

These severe climate and forest impacts should ensure that palm-oil based biofuels stay out of the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates that American motorists use 36 billion gallons of biofuel in their cars and trucks by 2022. But not if the powerful palm oil lobby has anything to do with it. A massive lobby effort led by palm oil companies Cargill and Wilmar is being waged to persuade the EPA to overturn its own climate science on palm oil.

Tell Obama’s EPA not to cave to industry pressure on palm oil and climate change.

Palm oil companies know this is jeopardizing news to their multi-billion dollar industry. In the United States, the EPA’s decision could also determine to what extent the U.S. becomes a major palm oil buyer. Consumption of palm oil in the United States is growing at a much faster rate than anywhere else in the world–making sense that industry reps from Indonesia and Malaysia are concerned about protecting palm oil’s reputation here.

The palm oil industry will do whatever it takes to maximize profits at the expense of destruction of the forest, species, and communities of Indonesia and Malaysia–where 85% of the world’s palm oil is cultivated.

Please urge the EPA to adhere to its own scientific findings over listening to palm oil industry giants such as Cargill and Wilmar.

		For the forests,
		Ashley Schaeffer Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Will the EPA Choose Political Influence over Science?

06/07/2012 Nativegrl77

Tell Obama’s EPA not to cave to industry pressure on palm oil and climate change.

Tell Obama’s EPA not to cave to industry pressure on palm oil and climate change.

Please urge the EPA to adhere to its own scientific findings over listening to palm oil industry giants such as Cargill and Wilmar.

		For the forests,
		Ashley Schaeffer Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Next steps to save Tripa forest …Lindsey Allen, Rainforest Action Network

04/13/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Give a wake up call to Cargill

As you know, Tripa rainforest is in a state of emergency.
The Tripa forest of Sumatra, home to Indigenous communities and critical to the survival of endangered Sumatran orangutans, is still in peril from the landclearing fires started by palm oil companies in March.
U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill—trader of 25% of the world’s palm oil—can make a difference by adopting the safeguards necessary to guarantee that rainforests, communities and critical habitat for endangered species are not destroyed through its palm oil business.
Cargill clearly needs a wakeup call. Can you commit five minutes of your time to give it to them?
Applying the kind of pressure required for Cargill to take a stand for the local people of Tripa, the survival of Sumatran orangutans, and the 130 million year old rainforests that they call home is no small task, but it’s a worthy one.
Are you ready to do what it takes to transform the destructive behavior of a corporate giant? Cargill needs to hear from you, and hundreds of other rainforest advocates like you, to be moved to action at this critical moment.
Let’s give this sleeping giant a wake up call today to save Tripa!