Your Purchasing Power: Every dollar you spend supports something.
Your Vote: Whether you use it or not, Voting can change the world.
Your Voice: Speaking up and educating is the catalyst for change.
By purchasing fair trade items you support fair wages for the people who helped produce the products; by purchasing organic you are saying no to pesticides that pollute the land and air and no to GMO.
You can be part of the solution by being conscious of what you support through the dollars you spend.
Forest clearing in forest area near oil palm plantations in Kalimantan Photo by R. Butler
Palm Oil Consumption Is Killing Orangutans
You may be contributing to forest clearing in Indonesia without even knowing it. Many soaps, ice creams, soy milks, cookies, dairy and non-dairy products, shampoos and cleaning products contain palm. Consumption and use of palm products (including fruit of palm, palm oil, palmitate, etc.) increases substantially every year. Reading labels and avoiding products with palm and telling your friends and family are ways you can help.
For a list of the many different names for palm click here.; please print out this list and take it with you when you go shopping. Additional information is available at the Palm Oil Blog.
World-leading orangutan experts have identified the clearance of rainforest for palm oil expansion as the single greatest threat to the survival of the orangutan in the wild.
Current estimates are that each year 5,000 orangutans are dying in Borneo, and 1,000 a year in Sumatra – that means 15 orangutans are dying every single day. This is catastrophic for the orangutan, but also reflects the loss of a wider rich and unique biodiversity within the Indonesian rainforest.