Nature Alert: re: palm oil. Reply from an Australian food supplier.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

re: palm oil. Reply from an Australian food supplier.

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your recent email in regards to the usage of Palm Oil in our Coles branded items.

We wish yo advise you that we have forwarded your comments to our Quality Control Team for their immediate attention.

We have been advised that we are presently investigating all sustainable options for this ingredient. We also currently hold specifications for our entire Housebrand range, so should you have a query regarding the specific status of a product, we can provide this information to you on a case by case basis.

Moving forward, we have developed guidelines for the labelling of our Housebrand range, that will assist our customers with the identification of Palm Oil in all our Housebrand products and you will see these labelling changes occurring as we convert our packaging.

Coles Supermarkets is committed to providing a high level of service and feedback such as yours helps us to continually improve.

Yours sincerely

Lucinda Moses

CUSTOMER CARE CONTACT CENTRE

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.