Nature Alert: Sainsbury's first with sustainable palm oil

Wednesday 14 May 2008

Sainsbury's first with sustainable palm oil

14th May 2008

Sainsbury's first with sustainable palm oil

Sainsbury's claims it will be the first supermarket to launch a food product containing certified sustainable palm oil.

The supermarket’s basics fish fingers are made with certified oil and go on sale this month.
According to Sainsbury’s, this will equate to around eight million fish fingers this year that are also Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) approved.

Sainsbury’s announced palm oil used in its own brand food would come from certified sustainable sources in November 2007, as increased demand is having a significant environmental impact.

By July 2008, Sainsbury’s soap will also contain certified sustainable palm oil.

Sainsbury’s will also be the first supermarket to label the use of palm oil in its food with the first range labelled by July 2008. By Fiona Briggs

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.