Nature Alert: MORRISON'S SUPERMARKETS

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

MORRISON'S SUPERMARKETS

LETTER RECEIVED BY A SUPPORTER
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Thank you for contacting us regarding the use of palm oil in Morrisons products.

I can assure you that we take your concern about palm oil extremely seriously. Indeed, we are committed to encouraging the responsible sourcing of palm oil and ensuring that its cultivation is not threatening forests or natural habitats.

As part of this commitment, in 2008 Morrison was accepted into the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to help promote best practice for the cultivation and use of sustainable palm oil throughout the supply chain.

Palm oil is an important and versatile raw material for both food and non-food industries, which contributes to the economic development of the producing countries and to the diets of millions of people around the world. Although palm oil is entirely GM free and has the highest yield per hectare than any oil or oilseed crop, it is recognized that there are environmental pressures on its expansion to eco-sensitive areas, particularly as oil palm can only be cultivated in tropical areas of Asia, Africa and South America. It is therefore vital that production and use of palm oil must be done in a sustainable manner based on economic, social and environmental viability.

Given the global nature of the palm oil market there is the need for collective action on an international basis and we do believe that the Roundtable process provides the best means of achieving this. In addition, we intend to strengthen our position in 2009 in ensuring that palm oil used as an ingredient in our own-brand products is from a sustainable source, and to monitor this through supplier audit activity.

I do hope that this letter has gone some way to reassuring you that we take our responsibilities in the area very seriously indeed. Please rest assured that your comments and views are very valuable to us; it is always our intention that our customers are satisfied with everything that they buy from us and with the service we provide.
Yours sincerely

A Spence

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Customer Services Department
WM Morrisons Supermarkets PLC
Consider the environment...Please think before you print this email

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.