Orangutans are literally dying for cookies

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Orangutans are literally dying for cookies

JoAnn Guest

Nov 12, 2006 14:55 PST

 

 

Orangutans are literally dying for cookies. Thanks in part to a palm

oil trade propped up by indifferent corporations and authoritarian

regimes, the rainforest habitats of the last remaining Sumatran

orangutans, tigers, and rhinoceroses are being destroyed.

 

 

Keebler, Oreo, Mrs. Fields, Pepperidge Farm and other companies use

palm oil in some of their cookies. It's found increasingly in

crackers, pastries, cereals, and microwave popcorn. Though not as

unhealthy as partially hydrogenated oil, palm oil still promotes

heart disease.

 

Tell Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to enact a corporate policy on palm oil

that would help protect the lives of humans and orangutans alike.

 

Take action now! READ the Report

(PDF 1.4MB)

http://www.cspinet.org/palmoilreport/index.html

 

Read the Press Release

 

Unfortunately, not only does palm oil promote heart disease, but the

vast plantations that grow oil palm trees have contributed to the

destruction of the rainforest and wildlife of Southeast Asia. Those

side effects are not broadly recognized—and avoided—by governments,

food manufacturers, or consumers.

 

A new U.S. government regulation requires that, by January 1, 2006,

food labels list a product's content of trans fat, which comes from

partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and is a major cause of heart

disease.

Many food processors are seeking to eliminate trans fat by switching

to other oils. Palm oil is one such alternative.

 

 

Palm oil is used around the world in such foods as margarine,

shortening, baked goods, and candies. Biomedical research indicates

that palm oil, which is high in saturated fat and low in

polyunsaturated fat, promotes heart disease.

 

It is far more conducive to heart disease than heart-protective oils

such as olive oil.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, World Health

Organization, and other health authorities have urged reduced

consumption of oils like palm oil.

 

Palm oil is forecast to be the world's most produced and

internationally traded edible oil by 2012. Malaysia and Indonesia

account for 83 percent of production and 89 percent of global export

 

 

Plantations pollute the soil and water with pesticides and

untreated palm oil-mill effluent, cause soil erosion and increased

sedimentation in rivers, and cause air pollution due to forest fires.

 

The demand for palm oil is forecast to double by 2020. To achieve

that production increase, 1,160 new square miles will have to be

planted

every year for 20 years. Indonesia has 26,300 square miles more

forest land officially allocated for new oil palm plantations;

Malaysia has almost 3,000 square miles more. The expected thousands

of square miles of new plantings on the islands of Sumatra and

Borneo could kill off the remaining orangutans, rhinos, and tigers.

 

 

 

Because of the impending trans-fat labeling regulation, many food

manufacturers are seeking alternatives to partially hydrogenated

vegetable oil.

If companies replaced the 2.5 billion pounds of partially

hydrogenated

oil used annually in foods needing a solid fat with palm oil, U.S.

palm oil imports would triple over the 2003 level. Such an increase

would require about 1,240 square miles of new oil palm plantations—

an area that represents rainforest habitat for up to 65 Sumatran

rhinos, 54

elephant families, 65 Sumatran tigers, and 2,500 orangutans.

 

 

 

More healthful substitutes are available for most uses of both

partially hydrogenated oil and palm oil, and food manufacturers and

consumers

should seek those out. Where palm oil's use is unavoidable, the oil

should be obtained from environmentally sound sources and used in

minimal quantities.

 

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets