Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Travel News .




FARM NEWS
Greenpeace slams palm oil giant supplying Oreo, Gillette
by Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP) Oct 22, 2013


Oreo cookies and Gillette shaving cream are among products driving the destruction of Indonesia's forests, Greenpeace said Tuesday, accusing agri-giant Wilmar International of supplying "dirty palm oil" to make the grocery items.

In its report "Licence to Kill", Greenpeace said that Singapore-based Wilmar, the world's biggest palm oil processor, was sourcing its oil from illegally cleared land and destroying the habitat of critically endangered Sumatran tigers.

"Until Wilmar commits to a no-deforestation policy, their trade of palm oil to big household brands... makes consumers unwitting accomplices in the extinction of Indonesia's 400 remaining Sumatran tigers," said head of Greenpeace's Forest Campaign in Indonesia, Bustar Maitar.

Wilmar supplies more than a third of the world's palm oil, according to the company's website, and Greenpeace said Wilmar's oil can be found in Oreo cookies, Gillette shaving cream and Clearasil face wash, among an array of grocery items in more than 50 countries.

The report accused Wilmar of continuing to source palm fruit from plantations on illegally cleared land within Sumatra island's protected Tesso Nilo National Park, prime tiger habitat.

It also called on Wilmar to take responsibility for a fire that hit the permit area of another of its suppliers in June, when blazes swept through Sumatra's forests for weeks, covering Singapore and Malaysia in a blanket of hazardous smog.

Indonesian officials said most fires, which sent high levels of carbon into the atmosphere, were deliberately lit to clear forested land and grow palm oil. Wilmar denied suggestions its supplier had deliberately lit land-clearing fires, saying in a statement the blaze was on a plantation that was likely ignited by surrounding flames.

"We are currently reviewing our business practices, including our sourcing policy, working with certain international supply chain experts," Wilmar spokesperson Lim Li Chuen told AFP.

The company said it had issued "a stern reminder to all staff" of its policy to only source palm fruit grown legally and that any supplier trying to sell illegally grown fruit would be "dropped altogether".

Greenpeace said that around one million hectares of tiger habitat had already been designated by the government for production purposes, urging Wilmar to protects forest that lies within its permit zones.

A forest area designated to a Wilmar subsidiary for production is a crucial corridor for the tiger and other endangered animals to move from one part of the island to another in order to survive, Greenpeace said.

"The challenge is on for Wilmar and its customers to clean up their act," Maitar said.

Wilmar is the latest company to be targeted by Greenpeace, which has taken aim at several high-profile firms and campaigned for responsible consumer spending.

Nestle and paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper have pledged zero-deforestation policies after Greenpeace exposed their unsustainable practices.

The palm oil sector is the largest driver of deforestation in Indonesia, home to around 10 percent of the world's tropical forest, where illegal logging is rampant.

Deforestation in Sumatra has increased the Sumatran tiger's contact with humans, leading to poaching and more tiger attacks, resulting in both tiger and human deaths, Greenpeace said.

The government has suspended the issuance of new land-clearing permits for certain types of forest for more than two years in a carbon-cutting scheme, backing by $1 billion from Norway under a UN scheme.

Indonesian government figures show that land-use change and forest degradation account for 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. ad/lv/lm

.


Related Links
Farming Today - Suppliers and Technology






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








FARM NEWS
New soil testing kit for third world countries
Madison WI (SPX) Oct 22, 2013
Researchers at the University of Maryland and Columbia University have developed a new soil testing kit designed to help farmers in third world countries. On-the-spot soil testing could have major impact in improving crop yields due to poor soils. The kit contains battery-operated instruments and safe materials for agricultural extension agents to handle in the field. They can test for the ... read more


FARM NEWS
Takeoff of Proton LV with US satellite may be put off until Oct 25

Technical glitch will delay launch of European space mission

Astrium awarded three new contracts by ESA for Ariane 6 and Ariane 5 ME launchers

Sounding Rocket Calibrates NASA's SDO Instrument

FARM NEWS
India sets November 5 for Mars mission launch

MAVEN Launch Preps on Schedule

Phobos-Grunt-2: Russia to probe Martian moon by 2022

Russian scientists set sights on space

FARM NEWS
Crowdfunded Lunar Spacecraft Reaches Funding Milestone

LADEE Continues To Settle Into Operational Lunar Orbit

NASA's moon landing remembered as a promise of a 'future which never happened'

Russia could build manned lunar base

FARM NEWS
SwRI study finds that Pluto satellites' orbital ballet may hint of long-ago collisions

Archival Hubble Images Reveal Neptune's "Lost" Inner Moon

New Horizons - Late in Cruise, and a Binary Ahoy

Pluto Science Conference Exceeds Expectations

FARM NEWS
Count of discovered exoplanets passes the 1,000 mark

Iowa research team see misaligned planets in distant system

Astronomer see misaligned planets in distant system

Water discovered in remnants of extrasolar rocky world orbiting white dwarf

FARM NEWS
Spacecraft Integration, Assembly and Test

ESA drives forward with all-electric telecom satellites

Russian booster 'not the culprit in saiga kill'

Proton booster back in service after mishap

FARM NEWS
Is China Challenging Space Security

NASA's China policy faces mounting pressure

Ten Years of Chinese Astronauts

NASA vows to review ban on Chinese astronomers

FARM NEWS
Is the 'Christmas Comet' cracking up?

Comet ISON Appears Intact

Spacecraft images of asteroid reinforce telescope observations

Telescopes Large and Small Team Up to Study Triple Asteroid 87 Sylvia




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement