|
|
Auckland Zoo bans Cadbury chocolate due to palm oil content mongabay.com July 12, 2009
The zoo is also removing other products that contain palm oil, due to concerns that its production is driving rainforest destruction across Southeast Asia, putting orangutans and other species at risk. Cadbury said it made the change to palm oil for economic reasons. Palm oil, described as "vegetable fat" on its packaging, is cheaper than cocoa butter.
"This sluggish demand from palm oil buyers, such as supermarkets, food and cosmetic manufacturers, could undermine the success of sustainability efforts and threatens the remaining natural tropical forests of Southeast Asia, as well as other forests where oil palm is set to expand, such as the Amazon," David McLaughlin, vice president of agriculture for WWF, an environmental group that is part of the RSPO, said in May. "We have been led down the path of false hope in selling environmentally certified palm oil and now the buyers are not keen on paying for the premium," Malaysian Palm Oil Council Chief Executive Yusof Basiron told Reuters in an interview last week. “The market signal is very clear. We can supply at a premium but if buyers are clearly not interested, the palm oil suppliers will have to change tack. This is still a business, after all.” Meanwhile Cadbury's rival, Whittaker, which doesn't use palm oil, is benefiting from the controversy, according to Sunday Star Times. CATHERINE WOULFE and KERRIE WATERWORTH. Zoo bars Cadbury products. Sunday Star Times 12-Jul-2009 Related articles With the clearing of forests, baby orangutans are marooned 
(06/25/2009) The orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng center, run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), are mainly “oil palm orphans” whose forest habitats were destroyed — and parents killed — by the swiftly spreading oil palm industry in Indonesia. BOS hopes to eventually release all of these orangutans back into their natural habitat — the majestic rainforests and swampy peat lands of central Kalimantan. But for many, this is a fate that may never be realized, and instead they may be relegated to a life in captivity. The reason? Suitable habitat in Borneo and Sumatra — the two islands that are home to the world's entire population of wild orangutans — is being deforested so rapidly that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find locations for reintroduction.
Palm oil boycott an unrealistic approach to conserving biodiversity (04/15/2008) Boycotting palm oil produced in Southeast Asia in an "unrealistic" and "ineffective" approach to conserving the region's fast-disappearing rainforests, said a Princeton University researcher speaking at a conference on the sustainability of palm oil. Instead, NGOs should focus on engaging and working with the palm oil industry to reduce its impact on the environment. Addressing the first International Palm Oil Sustainability Conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Princeton biologist Dr. David S. Wilcove said that the palm oil industry is too important to the economies of Indonesia and Malaysia to justify blanket import bans on the edible oil used in food, cosmetics, industrial products, and biodiesel. The palm oil industry contributes to health, education, and infrastructure in rural areas. Eco-friendly palm oil could help alleviate poverty in Indonesia 
(04/03/2007) The Associated Press (AP) recently quoted Marcel Silvius, a climate expert at Wetlands International in the Netherlands, as saying palm oil is a failure as a biofuel. This would be a misleading statement and one that doesn't help efforts to devise a workable solution to the multiplicity of issues surrounding the use of palm oil.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
|
|
MONGABAY.COM
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER INTERACT
STORE SHIRTS HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2009 |
