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Tell Wal-Mart that Palm Oil Kills Orangutans
Orangutans are literally dying for cookies. Thanks in part to a palm oil trade supported by indifferent corporations and authoritarian regimes, the rainforest habitats of the last remaining Sumatran orangutans, tigers, and rhinoceroses are being destroyed. Wal-Mart and other companies use palm oil in some of their cookies. It’s also found increasingly in crackers, pastries, cereal, and microwave popcorn. Though not as unhealthy as partially hydrogenated oil, palm oil still promotes heart disease.
Please urge Wal-Mart President and CEO Mr. H. Lee Scott, Jr. to reformulate Wal-Mart Great Value and Sam’s Choice house-brand products to make them heart-healthy and environmentally friendly and insist that other brands they sell do the same.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Take a leadership position in the food industry by implementing a corporate policy on palm oil
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
Mr. H. Lee Scott, Jr.
President and CEO
Wal-Mart
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611
Dear Mr. Scott:
Food processors are increasingly turning to palm oil as a replacement for partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is a major source of artery-clogging trans fat. Well-intended as those changes are, they pose two serious problems.
Unfortunately, while some palm oil is produced in an environmentally sustainable manner, most palm oil comes from decidedly non-sustainable sources. In Malaysia and Indonesia, every day irreplaceable rainforest is being cleared to produce timber and then replanted with oil palm trees. Those rainforests provided critically important habitat for Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, Sumatran rhinos and tigers, and other endangered species. The steady loss of rainforest is pushing those species ever closer to extinction.
Furthermore, palm oil is not ideal for human consumption, because it is almost as unhealthful as partially hydrogenated oil. In most instances, better substitutes are available. Many companies that have taken partially hydrogenated oil out of their cookies, crackers, and other foods have found that such healthful oils as high-oleic canola, soybean, corn, peanut, sunflower, and interesterified soybean oil are perfectly suitable alternatives. All of those oils are healthier for people and much less destructive to the environment.
I urge Wal-Mart to take a leadership position in the food industry by implementing a corporate policy on palm oil that would involve:
* Reformulating any Wal-Mart Great Value and Sam's Choice house-brand products that now contain palm oil.
* Using as little palm oil as possible when its use cannot be avoided and obtaining it from environmentally sustainable sources.
* Insisting that other companies whose products your stores sell similarly reformulate their products.
* Joining the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, as your British Asda chain has done, to help move the entire palm oil industry to adopt ecologically sound practices.
We can find other ways of making cookies. We can't find other ways of making orangutans. Thank you for your consideration.
Signed by:
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