Worst Food Additive Ever? It's in Half of All Foods We Eat and Its Production Destroys Rainforests

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Oct 25, 2011 at 11:43:25 AM PDT

On August 10, police and security for the massive palm oil corporation Wilmar International (of which Archer Daniels Midland is the second largest shareholder) stormed a small, indigenous village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They came with bulldozers and guns, destroying up to 70 homes, evicting 82 families, and arresting 18 people. Then they blockaded the village, keeping the villagers in -- and journalists out. (Wilmar claims it has done no wrong.)

The village, Suku Anak Dalam, was home to an indigenous group that observes their own traditional system of land rights on their ancestral land and, thus, lacks official legal titles to the land. This is common among indigenous peoples around the world -- so common, in fact, that it is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Indonesia, for the record, voted in favor of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Yet the government routinely sells indigenous peoples' ancestral land to corporations. Often the land sold is Indonesia's lowland rainforest, a biologically rich area home to endangered species like the orangutan, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, and the plant Rafflesia arnoldii, which produces the world's largest flower.

So why all this destruction? Chances are you'll find the answer in your pantry. Or your refrigerator, your bathroom, or even under your sink. The palm oil industry is one of the largest drivers of deforestation in Indonesia. Palm oil and palm kernel oil, almost unheard of a decade or two ago, are now unbelievably found in half of all packaged foods in the grocery store (as well as body care and cleaning supplies). These oils, traditional in West Africa, now come overwhelmingly from Indonesia and Malaysia. They cause jawdropping amounts of deforestation (and with it, carbon emissions) and human rights abuses.

Philippines Diaries, Day 4, Part 2 - The Reforestation Charade

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jun 16, 2011 at 09:00:00 AM PDT

You can see previous diaries here:
Days 1 & 2: Arrival and Travel to Isabela
Day 3, Part 1: Pesticide Shopping in San Mariano
Day 3, Part 2: Interviewing Indigenous Farmworkers
Day 3, Part 3: The Bioethanol Plant
Day 3, Part 4: Land Grabbing
Day 4, Part 1: "We Eat Animal Feed When We Can't Afford Rice"

The Palm Oil Atrocity

by: Asinus Asinum Fricat

Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 10:41:56 AM PST

Now, thankfully (and quite possibly because of "gentle pressure"), we have the globe's two biggest food firms, Nestlé and Kraft, who have launched internal investigations after a Greenpeace report claimed both purchase palm oil from Indonesian company PT Smart whose parent group Sinar Mas allegedly engages in widespread illegal deforestation and peatland clearance in Indonesia.

One great poster here, rossl, has written extensively on the palm oil debacle and it is worth taking a look at the first of a series of diaries.                                        

Where's the Beef?

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Jun 01, 2009 at 12:00:00 PM PDT

A report today from Greenpeace details a three-year investigation into these cattle farms and the global trade in their products, many of which end up on sale in Britain and Europe. Meat from the cattle is canned, packaged and processed into convenience foods. Hides become leather for shoes and trainers. Fat stripped from the carcasses is rendered and used to make toothpaste, face creams and soap. Gelatin squeezed from bones, intestines and ligaments thickens yoghurt and makes chewy sweets.

Many of the cattle ranches are violating laws that require them to retain 80% of the rainforest on their land. The area where this is occurring is quite unstable, like an Amazon wild wild West. Worse, check this out:

Cheap pasture from clearing and seeding rainforest is very attractive to farmers without easy access to the expensive agrichemicals and intensive land management techniques used in more developed countries. Within a few years, the planted pasture becomes overrun with native grass, unsuitable for cattle. Many farmers then take the cheap option and knock down adjoining forest to start again, leaving swaths of unproductive deforested land in their wake.

Most of the beef exports go to the Middle East, Russia, and Europe, so the odds are that we aren't eating this stuff here. Still, we have global markets so prices and production here in the U.S. often affect what happens abroad.

The article also mentions Amazon deforestation occurring to produce soy and biofuels. In the U.S. we've seen a recent debate about whether or not our EPA should factor in Amazon deforestation when assessing the carbon footprint of biofuels compared to oil. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on the May 7 edition of Agritalk that he doesn't believe a farmer in Brazil based his decisions on what farmers in Iowa do. But if we truly have a global market, then that is not the case. An Iowa farmer's actions (and U.S. demand or lack thereof for biofuels) will impact the price of crops and thus affect the Brazilian farmer's decisions.