Tag Archives: Snack food

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Help save the last remaining wild orangutans

10/18/2013 Nativegrl77

Make a $5 gift today and it will automatically be doubled!

To get cheap palm oil, top snack food brands are doing business with companies that are driving the last 60,600 wild orangutans to extinction, committing human rights violations and destroying rainforests.
Put simply, if these companies don’t change the way they’re doing business, orangutans are predicted to be extinct within our lifetime.
That’s why RAN has launched what may be our most ambitious campaign to date—and why two RAN supporters have offered to match every gift dollar-for-dollar up to $50,000 to make sure we have the resources to take the fight to the doorsteps of the top 20 snack food companies using “Conflict Palm Oil” in their products.
Give $5 today and your gift will automatically be doubled, meaning it will have twice the impact to save the endangered rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo and the 60,600 wild orangutans who call them home.
In Indonesia alone, the area covered by palm oil plantations has grown by 600 percent since 1990 to cover twenty million acres (that’s the size of Maine). This really is a critical moment for the world’s last remaining wild orangutans and the forests they call home, and we urgently need everyone who can to chip in to help us meet this match.
We’re only one month into our new campaign, The Last Stand of the Orangutan, and your emails and calls demanding the Snack Food 20 stop using Conflict Palm Oil are already having a huge impact. Some of these companies have started taking steps to address their palm oil problem, but they won’t commit to real, substantial change unless we can amplify our message.
Your support today will help build a powerful grassroots movement to send the loudest and clearest message we can that we expect these companies to eliminate rainforest destruction from their supply chains now. Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.
Every dollar you give today will double your impact to help save the endangered rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo and the orangutans that depend on them.
We are up against powerful and well-funded opponents, and we know our work is cut out for us. But, by standing together and taking the fight directly to the Snack Food 20, we can make a real difference in our fight to save these endangered rainforests.
So please don’t let this opportunity slip by—make your gift of $5 today to double your impact.
Thanks for all you do. You are making an incredible difference.

		For the great red ape,
		Lindsey Allen Executive Director Rainforest Action Network

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Fed up with Cargill, taking our demands to its customers

09/10/2013 Nativegrl77

Rainforest Action Network

It has begun!

I’m here in Minnesota today to kick off The Power Is In Your Palm Tour, a traveling roadshow that will visit a dozen of the Snack Food 20—companies using conflict palm oil in their popular snack food products—at their US headquarters. I’ll be working with the dedicated activists on the Palm Oil Action Team to deliver our demands to each of these companies: Take conflict palm oil tied to rainforest destruction, orangutan extinction, and human rights violations out of your snack foods!

Fittingly, we started the tour at the world headquarters of Cargill, the #1 importer of conflict palm oil into the US. We just hand-delivered over 100,000 petitions calling on Cargill to commit to transparency and safeguards that will eliminate the conflict palm oil that is driving orangutans to the brink of extinction from its global supply chain.

Cargill petition delivery

After years of making similar demands, though, we’re tired of waiting. Cargill has had its chance to do the right thing. After today, we’re taking our demands directly to Cargill’s customers—many of whom are amongst the Snack Food 20.
The Power Is In Your Palm Tour will travel across the US to deliver the message far and wide that you and me can change how these companies do business. When we take action, the Snack Food 20 will have to remove conflict palm oil from their products. And to do that, the Snack Food 20 will have to tell Cargill that it’s time to remove conflict palm oil from its supply chain.
Here’s how you can help:
1. Sign up for the Palm Oil Action Team—you’ll get all the latest calls to action and will make a huge contribution to The Power Is In Your Palm Tour. Together, we’ll pressure the Snack Food 20 to change their ways.
2. Chip in $5 to keep the tour rolling! We can’t do any of this without your support. Just $5 will go a long way.
It’s so important that you get involved now because we have truly reached The Last Stand of the Orangutan. Best estimates place the population of orangutans in the wilds of Sumatra and Borneo at just 60,600. We really have no time to waste in convincing the Snack Food 20 and Cargill to make sure the products they sell aren’t destroying precious habitat for these great red apes.
Thanks for all you do! And stay tuned, because the next event of The Power Is In Your Palm Tour is going down this Thursday, and we’ll finally be naming the Snack Food 20 and publicly calling on them to clean up their act. You’ll have a big role to play in making that call as loud and clear as possible!

		For the great red ape,
		Jess Serrante National Agribusiness Organizer Twitter: @Jess_Serrante

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Demand the snack food industry remove rainforest destruction from its products.

07/03/2013 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

www.ran.org

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

Get the facts. Then share them

05/23/2013 Nativegrl77

Gemma Tillack, Rainforest Action Network

Help spread the word about palm oil’s destructive impact on Indonesia’s rainforests—and how we can stop it!

We’ve been writing to you about the deforestation in Indonesia caused by palm oil production for years now. But you might still be connected to the problem and not even know it.
Palm oil is in roughly half of all the products on your grocery store shelves, including many of the most popular snack foods. Cookies, crackers, ice cream, peanut butter, chocolate bars… You get the point. Palm oil is difficult to avoid, especially if you don’t even know what to look for.
How can you find out if palm oil is an ingredient in your favorite snack? Why are rainforests being cut down for palm oil in the first place? And what can you do about it? Everything you need to know is in this blog post, which you can easily share with your friends and family!
To stop a problem as large as the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests for palm oil, though, it’s not enough to arm ourselves with the facts. We need to spread the word as far and wide as possible. Everyone needs to know their connection to rainforest destruction and how they can be part of the solution.
Is your favorite snack food contributing to rainforest destruction? Get the facts. Then share them.
If you look for “palm oil” in the ingredients list of your favorite snack food, you may not find it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Palm oil often gets listed as something seemingly harmless (though generally with more syllables than real food), like Ascorbyl Palmitate or Palm Kernel Stearin .
We put together all the information you need about palm oil’s destructive impact on the rainforests of Indonesia, and outlined ways you can take action to break the link between America‘s favorite snack foods and rainforest destruction. Arm yourself—and your friends and family—with the facts now.