When I’m explaining the
problems with palm oil to folks who are new to the issue, I often say
that I am almost impressed at how many things this industry has managed
to get wrong. The palm oil industry is enslaving workers and children,
destroying forests that are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on
the planet, and the climate pollution that comes from clearing the
peatland rainforests that are replaced with palm oil plantations is
greater than the entire US transportation sector.
I’m proud to say that this issue is getting more and more
of the attention it deserves and that the RAN Conflict Palm Oil campaign
is driving unprecedented changes in this awful industry. Slowly but
surely change is happening, but there are still a lot of folks,
including the decision makers at Snack Food 20 laggard company Hillshire
Brands, that aren’t taking the threats of Conflict Palm Oil seriously.
This month, palm oil activists around the country brought
their communities together to make a statement to Hillshire Brands
(creators of Sara Lee packaged pies and cakes) that the Conflict Palm
Oil in its products has got to go now.
Here are some of their stories:
At Green Lake in Seattle, LeAnn Fox brought together a
group of folks including the local group of the inspiring Raging
Grannies to march around the lake asking people to make phone calls to
Hillshire Brands. Together they generated dozens of calls and photo
petitions and informed Seattle locals about the problems with Conflict
Palm Oil and our demands of Hillshire Brands.
At the Venice boardwalk in Los Angeles, Shannen, Danny and
the LA Palm Oil Action Team partnered with the the local “L.A. for
Bernie Sanders” group. The group had intended to generate phone calls to
Hillshire Brands, but the company’s voicemail had already been flooded
by calls from other activists around the country. Quick to adapt, the
team improvised and got around 100 photo petitions which they tweeted at
Sara Lee.
Becky, a high school student in Orange County, CA, and her
team of 11 palm oil activists talked to other teenagers in their
community who got fired up about the impacts of Conflict Palm Oil and
called Hillshire Brands to demand that the company cut it out of its
supply chain immediately!
Lindsay and the Boston Palm Oil Action Team took to the
Boston Common to celebrate World Orangutan Day and put pressure on
Hillshire Brands. Despite having their event cut short by the rain, the
activists got 25 letters written to the company and a ton of
enthusiastic support from the many Bostonians who they talked to.
Anna, Kathy and the amazing Tempe, AZ, Palm Oil Action Team
braved the 115 degree heat to take action last week. The team of 5
passionate activists set up shop outside of a local bookstore to
generate 40+ calls to the company, 17 handwritten letters and a handful
of photo petitions.
Hillshire Brands still hasn’t gotten back to RAN about its
status as one of the biggest laggards in the Snack Food 20 group of
companies. Stay tuned… we’ll let you know soon about more ways that you
can help RAN pressure the company to do the right thing and cut Conflict
Palm Oil.
Thanks to the committed activists who organized these events! If you
find yourself inspired to take on more in the fight for forests, we’d
love to have you join our Palm Oil Action Team as well! For more on the Palm Oil Action Team including how to join, click here or check out our video below. Tags: Forests palm oil frontpage
http://www.ran.org/reporting_back_sara_lee?utm_campaign=sl_reportback&utm_medium=email&utm_source=rainforestactionnetwork
