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In addition to grain, meat, livestock feed, and pharmaceutical ingredients, Cargill is also involved in palm oil production, a highly saturated vegetable fat that's used in soaps and many processed foods. Cargill is the leading supplier to U.S. food companies Kraft, Nestle and General Mills, and the use of palm oil has risen dramatically over the last five years.
According to the Rainforest Action Network (via the Huffington Post), the company is "mowing down" Indonesian rain forests for palm oil production. The claim compares the destruction to an area the size of Disney World, and says this expansion is directly causing the endangerment of wildlife specific to that region.
Cargill denies the claim, saying that what they cut down wasn't designated as an actual forest -- but it's hard to argue that a tree isn't a tree. A statement on Cargill's website reads "the entire area where our properties are located in Kalimantan [Indonesia] were deforested over ten years ago, which was before we acquired the plantations."
As Reuters points out, despite Cargill's recent commitments to go "green" in their palm oil production, environmental groups aren't waiting around for that to happen -- and if any perceived violation is happening, they'll be quick to call it out.
Sounds like this battle is just heating up.
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5-07-2010 @4:24PM redapes said... Around 90% of the global supply of palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, and this has come at a tremendous cost. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are being burned to the ground-- releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere that Indonesia now ranks only behind China and US in carbon emissions-- and it is barely industrialized. The UNEP estimates that the forests of Indonesia are being cleared at a rate of 6 football fields per minute every minute of every day.
The palm oil industry is guilty of the most heinous ecological atrocities imaginable, including the systematic genocide of orangutans. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only place where these gentle, intelligent creatures live, and the cultivation of palm oil has directly led to the brutal deaths of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of rainforest.
When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are typically shot on sight. These peaceful, sentient beings are beaten, burned, mutilated, tortured and often eaten. Babies are torn off their dying mothers so they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. This has been documented time and again.
If nothing is done to protect orangutans, they will be extinct in just a few years. Visit the Orangutan Outreach website to learn more: redapes.org
Orangutan Outreach
http://redapes.org
Reach out and save the orangutans!
Adopt an orangutan today!
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5-10-2010 @2:23PM David said... The solution to global warming is to maintain the rain forests, not cap and trade.
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5-10-2010 @2:47PM NazzTea said... Mmm! Palm oil! Just another "natural" ingrediant along with high fructose corn syrup in all those "old fashioned" recipes brought to you by the processed food industry. But hey, "it's what the consumer wants".
Don't you?
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5-16-2010 @6:17AM Treva said... Hey Nazz Tea-
You have said it all (just about) : I am responsible , you are responsible, we are all responsible for the mess, created by multinationals giving us exactly what we want, and buy. But - how to start turning the system around........??
5-10-2010 @3:08PM BAN1ARM said... THE RAINFORESTS IS WHAT SUPPLIES MOST OF THE OXYGEN FOR THE WORLD TO BREATH! WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE GOING TO BREATH WHEN THERE IS NONE ANYMORE DUE TO THEIR GREEDINESS?
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5-10-2010 @4:03PM lita said... Ragbrains? Towelbrains? Really, Jason? I am sad that you are so filled with hate that you can't express yourself without going down such an ugly path. How anyone can relish his or her crassness as much as you is beyond me. But you have proven that age old adage: You just can't fix "stupid."
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5-10-2010 @3:43PM MTM said... More liberal whinning.
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5-10-2010 @4:33PM Glen said... Something tells me all your Happy meal wrappers don't end up where they're supposed to go.
5-10-2010 @7:33PM Dusty said... Liberal whinning? So you are saying that the conservative ideal of clearing the rainforest is something good? The conservative idea that man cannot do any damage to his environment whatsoever is the truth?
Maybe you should have your residence at Love Canal New York? How about Centralia Pennsylvania? Beach front property in Louisianna?
Love Canal is loaded with dioxins. Centralia is sitting above a coal mine fire and of course Louisianna is getting a lubricated beach. All due to man being downright stupid.
5-10-2010 @3:44PM ralonne said... Good for them! This kind of thing happens all the time and maybe if enough people protest such actions by boycotting the very foods they provide this palm oil for (which is bad for you anyway), then maybe they'll change their ways... But I'm not holding my breath ...
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5-10-2010 @4:16PM Lisa said... Would everyone just take a moment of their time to email Cargill.com and Kraft.com and Nestle.com to let them know you will not be purchasing their products in the future because of their greedy ways. Thanks!
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5-10-2010 @4:56PM ajschrod said... Are there "reasonable" substitutes for palm oil? What's the sense of writing this article if 1) The company can't be punished in some way for their terrible mis-use of a rain forest or 2) There's a simple and relatively inexpensive alternative for palm oil available to them. Publicity is importent here--Americans must be made aware of this NOW! I don't think too many people know what palm oil is, let alone any damage caused by it's use.
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5-10-2010 @6:41PM linemanron said... Yes there is. Stop being lazy and start cooking again. Meals from scratch not a box and not a freezer. Know every ingredient that goes in and stop feeding your family garbage!
5-10-2010 @4:30PM Jim said... Lita, I believe that a lot of the hate is due to the fact that that demographic being responsible for the vast majority of inhuman and disgusting acts of terrorism in practically every corner of the world. You should be more tolerant and realize that the muslim population can not sit back idly while their violent minority acts so heineously, they must act or this type of sentiment will grow (and some would say justifiable so, the same as if rogue American citizens started strapping bombs to themselves and started deliberatly targeting civilian populations...). So, be tolerant of those that are not tolerant, in that they are reacting in a natural way to a dire situation that they have little to no control over. Hate and intolerance is horrible, but in some cases there are mitigating factors that can justify to some extent the frustration and anger. Stupidity is not having an opinion or ignoring a bad situation, not reacting to it.
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5-10-2010 @4:36PM wstarhopper said... While I hate the destruction of the rain forests and I truley think it is unneccasary, I cannot believe that peple are still falling for that global warming crap. The so called scientists rule out things like the effects of the sun, the volcanoes that are going off and the natrual wobble of the earths orbit. Why do you think that is?
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5-10-2010 @4:44PM ptmndd said... Boycott them. Your grandchildren will need oxygen to live.
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5-10-2010 @4:47PM Joey said... The United States has NO business telling other countries what to do with their natural resources...we are so inept we can't even keep oil companies from destroying our own oceans!!!!
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5-10-2010 @5:33PM Bryon said... Don't the oceans produce most of the Earth's oxygen?
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5-10-2010 @6:45PM linemanron said... Yeah algae and warming oceans are causing it to die too.
5-10-2010 @5:47PM Joe Turner said... I am well familiar with this company and it is the most exploitative in the agriculture business, along with Monsanto.
We must learn to read labels and stop buying products that contain ingredients produced by these companies. What's at stake? The life of the planet. That's all.
What happens to species lower on the food chain, happens to us eventually. Everything from protoplankton to Black Angus are all connected. Don t trust me. Do some research on your own. You owe it to yourself and the planet.
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