LI-7;l.7 ..
Minister for Fisheries, Forestries, and Conservation
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Townsville Central State School
Warburton St, North Ward
4810
09/05/2011
Dear Minister,
I am writing about the use of palm oil in products, and the regulations concerning it. Just recently I
have discovered the shocking truth about the production of it, and how many products use it without
naming it as palm oil. Did you know that forests the size of 300 football fields are being cut down
every hour in Borneo? Or that it is predicted that orangutans will be extinct in the wild in 20 years,
mainly due to habitat destruction. Orangutans share 97% of our DNA. Do we really want our closest
living relatives to die out because the regulations concerning palm oil are unclear? It is the public's
right to know what they are buying, and what they are causing to happen.
Firstly, the impact is not confined to Borneo. When rainforests are cleared to make palm oil plantations,
their swampy peat releases huge amounts of methane, a gas 23 times worse for global warming than
Co2. Also, it has been proven that 80- 100% Borneo's animal population cannot survive in palm oil
plantations, which now makes up 44% of Borneo's land mass. Are we going to kill off our planet
.
because of palm oil?
Secondly, what the companies are doing is lying. I for one do not believe that we should be letting big
businesses get away with lying about what they have in their products. 50 orangutans die each week
as a consequence of companies using a cheap, easy product. I do not think that companies simply do
not know what they are doing. They are using the cheap easy way out to make money for them, but
what they are actually doing is destroying our world.
And finally, palm oil is actually bad for your health. It has high amounts of fat, and causes higher risk of
diabetes and obesity, especially since humans consume an average of 10kg per year. It is extremely
high in saturated fat, and bio-medical research proves that it increases the risk of heart disease.
We're destroying our planets biodiversity so we can become unhealthy? It doesn't make sense to me.
As the captain of my school, I speak not only for me, but for the school kids of Australia. This is the
world we are going to spend our life in. For the sake of our world, our animals, and our future,
please help make it a better place.
Yours Faithfully,
Alison McCook
School Captain
On Behalf of Townsville Central State School
Dear Arrnotts,
I love your products! However I've felt guilty buying them since I discovered they
contain palm oil!
I want to know why you use palm oil in your products, and if you are aware of how it
is effecting and destroying our planets rainforests? About 300 football fields worth of
rainforest are getting cleared per hour to grow palm oil. Hello
Deforestation - Orangutans habitats
Global Warming
These rainforests are precious orangutan's habitats. ! If things keep going the way that
they are now, in approximately 10 shorts years all the orangutans could become
extinct!
We share 97% of their DNA yet we have destroyed 80% of their home!
Cutting down trees for palm oil contributes to global warming.
Please substitute palm oil! I want to buy your products again!
There are alternatives that don't include using palm oil in your products. I've noticed
that many children around my school have stopped putting your products in their
lunch boxes since they found out that they contain palm oil. For your company's own
good I suggest that you stop using palm oil immediately!
Yours Sincerely,
Townsville Central State School.
Dear Maggi,
I love your products! Although I feel guilty buying them since I found out that they
contained palm oil. I want to know if you are aware of what you are using in your
products and that palm oil is also know as vegetable oil. It would be really nice if you
used different ingredient that may do the same thing as the palm oil.
Deforest Action
As part of the deforest action group at Townsville Central State School we have
been asked to take part in a world wide action to save the orangutans in Borneo and
Indonesia. These places are typical palm oil produces. They clear 300 football fields
of rainforest an hour. These rainforest is where the orangutans live.
I have realised that student at our school have stopped putting your products in their
lunch boxes. So for the rainforest and off course your company's own good I would
change what you are doing immediately.
Yours Faithfully Townsville Central.
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Presented by: Isabelle, Jann-Yssabel,
Lucas, Tom, Cameron, Ethan, Tommy,
Kajsa, Hannah, Gabbie, Allison, Max,
Keeden, Amy & Kodi
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil that is very high in
saturated fat.
It is derived from the palm fruit, grown on the African oil
palm tree. African oil palms originated in West Africa,
but can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant.
Palm oil is the world's second largest oil crop.
It is used extensively in food, body care, and industrial
products. Palm oil is made from the fruit of oil palm trees,
which are usually planted in large plantations.
Malaysia and Indonesia are the world's largest palm oil
producers.
I
.
IT'S EVERYWHERE!!!!
Palm oil is found in one out of every ten supermarket
products including shampoos, cooking oil, chocolate,
cosmetics, chips, biscuits, margarine and soaps.
The UN estimates that palm oil plantations are 'now the
primary cause of permanent rainforest loss'. This
threatens the survival of the Orangutans, the Sumatran
tigers and the Asian rhinoceros.
Additionally, burning after deforestation accounts for
significant greenhouse gas emissions -1,400 million
tonnes of C02 every year in Indonesia alone.
www.ethical.org.au
An expansion in oil palm
plantations is causing
massive deforestation andHow Palm OllHarms Health,
this is the greatest threat Rainforest & Wildlife
to orangutans. They and
other endangered species
such as the Sumatran
rhino and tiger need the
rainforest to survive. It is
estimated that 80% 100 ok> of the forests' birds,
mammals and reptiles can
not survive in oil palm
plantations. We must
protect the remaining
rainforest habitat.
Center ~for Science in the ,Public IntcTcst
Orangutans Killed and Orphaned
There are only 7000 Sumatran Orangutans and 50,000 Borneo
Orangutans left in the wild. An Orangutan in Indonesia may be
killed while we give this presentation. Their habitat is burn and
adults shot. Many orphan Orangutans are rescued, but we can
also help!
ORANGU~
rang ~ s v
A y tw h
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We r try·n t
a fo 99 l ar
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NS ARE LIKE US!
ap
e
ox·mate Y 97% of 0 r
S oyed 80% 0 their
r ·se as much money
t
p v t
0
uy
PALM OIL IS
A MAJOR
CONTRIBUTOR TO GLOBAL WARMING
Rainforest destruction is still out of control.
(Indonesia is included in the Guinness
Book of Records as the country which
pursues the highest annual rate of
deforestation. Currently an area of forest
equal to 300 soccer fields is being
destroyed every hour in the country)
G.h
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MS910220347[1].wav
Deforestation Contributes to
Global Warming
WHAT IS ·GLOBAL WARMING?
Global warming is when the Earth gets
hotter and hotter and hotter. This happens
when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide,
water vapour nitrous oxide and methane)
trap heat and light from the sun, in the our
Earths atmosphere. The burning and
clearing of forests causes this. As a result
the earth is warming.
Wet, swampy rainforests are drained and cleared to
make way for oil palm plantations. As they dry, their peat
filled soils release large amounts of methane, a
greenhouse gas that has a global warming impact 23
times greater than C02.
The cleared land is highly susceptible to long burning
fires that emit large quantities of carbon. Illegally lit
peatland fires in Borneo have for years been one of the
largest global sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
It has recently been calculated that 15% of all carbon
dioxide emissions from fossil fuels come from this
rainforest destruction.
cutting down trees make me sad
We cut down 300 football
field's worth of trees every
hour. We are just destroying
the Orangutan's natural
habitat.
Why use Palm Oil???
Palm Oil is a popular oil for
manufacturers because it has
a longer shelf life than other
oils.
It is also thought to have a
better taste and enhance food
products!
MANY OF THE BELOW PRODUCTS ARE
BELIEVED TO CONTAIN PALM OIL!
•
•
Heinz - (diet foods)
Nestle Australia - (frozen food & chocolate goods)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Maggi - (noodles)
Michelina - (ravioli)
Birds Eye - (frozen fish products)
LCM's - (cereal & milk bars)
Sara lee - (desert products)
Arnott's - (shapes & baked products)
®c
ABE
....... ~T
Palm oil is a product that is
currently affecting the Orangutans'
population!& YOUR HEALTH!!!
Palm oil is also known as 'vegetable
oil', to conceal it is actually palm
oil. Palm oil also contains 49.9 %
saturated fat!
This can make you overweight, and
is not healthy for your body. Sadly,
palm oil is in most of the delicious
and awesom e foods we buy, such
as;
Tim Tams, Shapes, Pringles,
Cereals, and most of all
chocolates ! ®
LABELS
IT'S NOT ALWAYS EASY TO KNOW
WHAT IS IN A PRODUCT!
Under Food Standards Australia New Zealand requirements, it is
sufficient to have vegetable oil in the list of ingredients on the
packet, even though the product contains palm oil.
As a rule of thumb, if the saturated fat content is about 50°A" there is
a good chance that the vegetable oil will in fact be palm oil.
Another thing to watch out for on
If
the product contains margarine, it is highly likely that the margarine
will have been derived from palm oil.
),
Additives and agents such as emulsifiers (
while a small component of the overall product, can also be derived
from palm oil.
Other names to keep an eye out for that could be or be derived from
palm oil are cocoa butter equivalent (
), cocoa butter substitute
(
)
OTHER NAMES FOR PALM OIL IN FOOD!
• Steareth-2
• Steareth -20
• Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
• Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (coconut and/or palm)
• Hydrated palm glycerides
• Sodium isostearoyllactylaye (derived from
vegetable stearic acid)
• Cetyl palmitate and octyl palmitate (and anything
with palmitate at the end)
Products with· aim oil!
IT IS BELIEVED 10% OF PRODUCTS I
AUSTRALIAN SUPER MARKETS CONTAI
PALM OIL!!!
It is hard to believe that the closest living
creature to us will be extinct in just un'dar 20
years if we keep purchasing these products
containing Palm Oil!
Please sign our letters of petition to the
government and these companies to change
palm oil regulations.
Products Proud to Cont
NO Palm O·
Chokolit is only available in the UK at this stage
but this is a truly inspirational story.
A twelve year old, Louis, founded the company
and is trying to make a change in the UK too.
Chokolit directly supports various animal
, conservation groups including the Sumatran
Orangutan Society. To read more' about the
company, visit www.chokolit.co.uk
THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS ARE PROUDL Y
LISTED ON www.orangutans.com.au
.',,'
Manufacturer
Brand
Product
Cadbury's
Cadbury Dairy Milk
Chocolate blocks - Dairy
Milk, Old Gold, Dream
Cadbury's
Green & Black's
Chocolate blocks (except
Butterscotch; Raisin &
Hazelnut)
Chokolit
Chokolit
Chocolate blocks*
Lindt & Sprungli
Lindt Excellence; Lindt
Creation
Chocolate blocks (Note
that filled products such
as Lindor do contain palm
oil)
Nestle
Club
Chocolate blocks
Whittaker's
Whittaker's
Chocolate blocks
cuits
Brand
Product
Campbell Soup Company
Arnotts
Cruskits; Salada Original (not
lite); Vita-weat; Vita-weat
grain snacks; Vita-weat
crackers; Vita-Weat rice
crackers
Coreco Fine Foods
Biofood Organic
Melba Toast
Crispbic Australia
Crispbic
Flatbics
Delba
Cocktail Rounds
Pumpernickel bread
Fantastic Snacks
Fantastic
Rice crackers (seaweed
flavour only)
George Weston Foods
Ryvita
Crispbread
Ricegrowers Ltd
SunRice
Rice cakes; Corn cakes
Waterwheel Industries
Waterthins
Bagelettes; Cheese twists;
Fine wafers; Flatbread
crackers; Savoury straws
Woolworths Ltd
Select
Manufacturer
Multigrain wheat crispbread;
Sea salt crackers
Manufacturer
Brand
Product
Smiths Snackfood Co
Red Rock Deli
Potato chips with sea salt
Snacks Brands Australia
Kettle
Original salted
kettle chi ps (other
variants have small
quantities of palm oil
derivatives in flavouring)
Vege Chip Company
Ajitas
Vege chips
Select
Light potato chips; Oven
baked pretzel twists; Delistyle sea salt chips
Woolworths Ltd
McCain Foods does not use palm oil in its
frozen dinners.
• Nestle (Lean Cuisine, Maggi) has indicated that
palm oil is not an ingredient in the majority of its
frozen meals but has not been able to be more
specific.
• Here is a list of products that don't have
vegetable oil listed as an ingredient - not a
guarantee but the best we can do with the
information we have.
...... .,. . . ·n Meals - NO
Manufacturer
Brand
HJ Heinz Australia
Weightwatchers
McCain Foods (Aust) Pty Ltd
McCain
Product
Thai chicken yellow curry; Beef burgundy;
Beef cannelloni; Vegetable lasagne;
Chicken fettucine; Chicken pesto
spaghettini; Satay chicken; Seafood
risotto; Thai fish fillets; Chicken penne;
Sweet & sour chicken
Healthy Choice; frozen dinners
Satay beef with rice; Creamy dill & salmon
Nestle Australia
Lean Cuisine
pasta; Vegetable cannelloni; Pumpkin,
spinach & ricotta lasagne; Lean beef
lasagne; Satay chicken noodles; Beef with
vegetables in cracked pepper sauce; Indian
style butter chicken; Beef in red wine
sauce with garlic mash; Chicken &
vegetable risotto; Honey mustard chicken
with rice; Thai prawn curry with rice
Mediterranean Goodness Beef lasagne;
Maggi
Macaroni cheese
World Flavours Caribbean mango prawns
with rice and corn
Select Brands Pty Ltd
Michelina's
Beef ravioli
Simplot Australia
Birds Eye
All frozen fish products
Frozen snacks I pies I pizzas I pastry
• Nearly all frozen pastry contains palm oil as it is made
using margarine or vegetable oil. However we have
found a chilled filo pastry and a limited number of other
puff and shortcrust pastry products that contain no palm
oil and are listed below.
• Most pizza products contained vegetable oil and in many
cases E471 as an emulsifier. McCain has noted that
palm oil is not used in the preparation of its pizzas so we
assume that the vegetable oil listed as an ingredient in
its products is not palm oil.
• Steggles uses cottonseed and canola as its frying and
general food oil. While not specified in its formulations,
Steggles advises that its suppliers may use emulsifiers
including E471 at very low levels which don't require
labelling.
Margarines & Peanut Butter
•
Goodman Fielder and Unilever, the two major producers of spreads in
Australia, have confirmed that all their spreads contain a percentage
of palm oil. Fonterra has also confirmed that its Western Star spread
range may contain palm oil.
•
Most peanut butters appear to contain palm oil. Apparently the peanut oil is
extracted to sell separately and replaced in the peanut butter by cheaper
palm oil.
However we have found one of the Sanitarium range of products which is
100 % peanuts along with Ceres Organic, Dicksmith Peanut Butter and
Melrose Health spreads which are also palm oil free.
So, it's back to butter or the following products which we believe are palm oil
free:
Manufacturer
Brand
Product
Arla Foods
Harmonie
Organic spreadable
Ceres Enterprises Ltd
Ceres Organic
Organic Peanut butter
(Crunchy & Smooth), Almond
Butter
Devondale
Devondale
Dairy soft & Dairy soft salt
reduced
Dick Smith Foods
Dick Smith
Peanut butter
Fonterra
Mainland
Butter Soft
Melrose Naturals
100% Cashew; 100% Almond;
Hazelnut; Almond, Brazil &
Cashew
II
Melrose
Nut spreads
II
Melrose Omega Care
Table spreads
Naturals
100% Peanuts (Crunchy &
Smooth)
Melrose Health
Sanitarium
Manufacturer
Brand
Product
Be Natural Cereals
Be Natural
Five whole grain flakes range
Carman's Fine Foods
Carman's
All muesli products and
rolled oats
Abundant Earth
Organic bircher muesli;
puffed rice, corn, millet,
kamut
Kelloggs
Kelloggs
All Bran; Coco pops; Crispix;
Crunchy Nut (except
Clusters); Frosties;
Guardian; Nutri-Grain; Rice
Bubbles; Special K; Sultana
Bran (except Crunch); Sustain
Nestle
Uncle Tobys
All Uncle Tobys' cereals
Popina Food Services
Arnold's Farm
Toasted Muesli
Table of Plenty
Table of Plenty
Muesli (velvety vanilla, honey
spiced)
Health Brands Australia
Bab Formula
Heinz has reformulated its range of infant
formulas (Heinz Nuture Gold Starter,
Starter, Gold Follow-on, Follow-on),
removing palm oil from these products.
INSTANT NOODLES
Manufacturer
Brand
Product
Clahym
Just Egg Noodles Instant noodles
Wesfarmers
Coles 2 minute
.
dl
1nstant noo es
.
Instant nood les
Laundry & Cleaning Products
Brand
Product
Austech Products .
Orange Power
Cleaners and laundry
products available in most
major and independent
retailers. Visit
www.orangepower.com .a
u for more information.
Pental
Sunlight soaps
Laundry soap at
www.pental.com.au
Manufacturer
UPERMARKE·~~~~f~~~.,c. " ,~
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9
• Woolworths leading the wa'l...
Woolworths Ltd released a Sustainable Palm Oil Action
Plan in March 2010 whereby the company commits to
moving to certified sustainable palm oil from RSPO
members by 2015 for all Woolworths private label
products (Select and Homebrand). It has also committed
to on-pack labelling of palm oil and derivatives for all
these products (where oil is a listed ingredient ie
excludes trace oils potentially present i'n emulsifiers etc).
It is also applying to become a member of the RSPO.
****KFC the last of the big take-away chains to move
away from Palm oil- YA YI
Source - www.orangutan.com.au
We must not forget the people of
Indonesia
• The Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil was
established in 2007 to address concerns about
palm oil and support already present farms.
• It encourages environmentally friendly practises.
Look for products that have been certified by the
RTPO.
• On the other hand ... there are reports that
Indigenous communities do not approve further
clearing of forests. This is their land!!! Many
jobs also go to foreigners!
HOME MADE - Then you really know what is in
what you are eating or cleaning with.
Cleaning - Vinegar etc. Old remedies (Ask
your parents and never use any type of
'cleaner' without adult supervisi·on).
L.ip Balm - Watch as we make our own!!!!
Slice - Make your own!
Its fun, cheap and Palm Oil Free!
Tasty and easy to make food
With NO PALM OIL!
COCONUT ICE
Ingredients:
4 cups icing sugar
3 cups coconut
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pink (or any desired colour) food colouring
Directions:
1. Mix all the ingredients (except the food colouring) together in a bowl (I
find the best way is to use my hands.)
2. Separate half the mixture into another bowl and add pink food colouring.
Mix again (again easiest with hands)
3. Press into a square tin/dish (making it in two layers of colour) and
refrigerate!!
RECIPE 1 - Cranberry Lip Gloss
1 tbs Macadamia Oil
10 Cranberries or any berries available
1 tsp Honey
•
1)Microwave one tablespoon Macadamia Oil, 10 fresh cranberries and
1 teaspoon honey until mixture starts to boil.
•
•
2)Gently crush berries and stir well. Strain liquid through a fine sieve to
remove any solids
3) Pour into containers and let set in the fridge.
•
MORE EASY RECIPES AVAILABLE AT - www.allfreecrafts.com
tACTI-.- -Our
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•. wW.defores· action.com.au
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.responsibleconsumer.com.alJ.
:; Vww.palmoiladion.com.a
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• w w.bor eo.com.au
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