Vital First Victory for Palm Oil Campaign
For the past few months Elephant Family has been campaigning to ensure that compulsory labelling of palm oil is introduced on food packaging across Europe. Clearer labelling will allow shoppers to make choices about the products they buy, but more importantly, it will support vital changes in the palm oil industry, as food companies will be encouraged to shift to sustainable sources.
On Tuesday 19th April the European Parliament met to vote on whether or not they supported this new amendment: we are delighted to report that they voted in favour of its introduction. This is an essential milestone for the ‘Clear Labels, Not Forests’ campaign and we were overwhelmed by the response we received from our supporters. It demonstrates how simple action can make a big difference and strengthen our efforts to save the Asian elephant.
However, the amendment will now face the vote of the Council of the European Union. Both the Council and Parliament must agree for the amendment to come into force. Each member state of the EU will be represented by a relevant minister who will commit his or her government to a vote. The UK will therefore be represented by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Caroline Spelman. So, we must maintain the momentum and urge our governments to say ‘yes’ to the labelling of palm oil. Without the Council’s support, palm oil will remain an unseen ingredient, listed simply as ‘vegetable oil’, allowing companies to turn a blind eye to their responsibilities to the environment.
In 2008 we were informed that around 43 of the 100 most popular products on our supermarket shelves contained palm oil. Consequently, the demand for this important ingredient is enormous, and tropical forests and carbon-rich peatlands are being systematically decimated to make-way for oil palm plantations. The United Nations has stated that the expansion of palm oil cultivation is the most significant cause of permanent forest and peat land loss in South East Asia, causing considerable greenhouse gas emissions and an unimaginable loss of habitat and biodiversity. Elephants, orangutans, tigers and rhinos are losing their homes and being pushed closer to extinction.
If we can show that the average consumer does not want to unwittingly consume forest-destroying palm oil then we create the opportunity to urge companies to behave more responsibly. Elephant Family does not support a boycott of palm oil: we want to ensure that it is farmed sustainably and that the world’s dwindling forests are not chopped down to make way for new plantations.
We already know that the UK government does not currently support this new amendment. They have said that it is too ‘burdensome’ for the industry to label palm oil on products and that it should be labelled by companies on a ‘voluntary basis’. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has suggested that if consumers want to know if a product contains palm oil then we should contact the manufacturer directly.
We want to ask why the government feels that it should be left to us to lobby individual companies to consider their environmental footprint. Realistically, most companies will not change their environmentally-unsound ways unless we create sufficient bad publicity for them, and many simply will not do it at all.
It is crucial that we make sure our initial efforts were not in vain. The ‘Clear Labels, Not Forests’ coalition* will be taking the campaign one step forward in the coming days: we will be asking our supporters across Europe to write to their relevant ministers, for the sake of the elephants and the world’s biodiversity please take action.
* The 'Clear Labels, Not Forests' coalition are: Elephant Family, Sumatran Orangutan Society, Orangutan Foundation, Save the Rhino, Ape Alliance, The Jane Goodall Institute UK,and the European Association of Zoos and Aquariawritten by Jo Cary-Elwes on 21st April 11
