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Palm oil petition to be launched

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Palm oil petition to be launched

3News NZ

A worker collects palm fruit at a plantation owned by a private company in Langkat of Indonesia's north Sumatra province (Reuters)

A worker collects palm fruit at a plantation owned by a private company in Langkat of Indonesia's north Sumatra province (Reuters)

A group calling for the Government to require mandatory labelling of palm oil products is set to launch a petition with the help of the Green Party.

Unmask Palm Oil, led by Pakuranga College students, is lobbying for a change to current food labelling rules, which allow palm oil to be labelled as a scientific name or as "vegetable oil".

The current labelling makes it impossible for consumers to avoid products containing the oil – the production of which is destroying rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia – the habitats of endangered species, including the orangutan, the group says.

Green Party food spokesperson Mojo Mathers, who will attend the petition launch on Wednesday evening, says many consumers want to avoid palm oil because of its environmental impacts.

"Companies have an ethical obligation to fully disclose if their products contain palm oil with upfront labelling," Ms Mathers says.

"If they are using palm oil from certified sustainable sources, there is nothing to stop companies including that information on the label as well," said Ms Mathers.

Unmask Palm Oil has successfully lobbied NZ First to adopt a palm oil labelling policy, and is also hoping to get Labour's support.

It will present the petition to Parliament in August.

NZN

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Comments

10/03/2013 4:20:14 p.m.

atrout wrote:

Another emotive issue for the Greens to get into both feet and no brains.

28/02/2013 10:50:50 p.m.

Dewi wrote:

PLEASE STOP USING PALM OIL! THANK YOU:

27/02/2013 8:32:46 p.m.

@mike wrote:

A bit like the national government killing off our waterways so they can give it to the farmers in Canterbury aye mike? Then they hit resistance from the enviro group down there so the govt sacks them all and puts in their own. Now if we tossed out this govt and shared the water fairly, or even looked after it environmentally so it was sustainable instead of being drained and farming will eventually cease once the waters gone so everyone looses except the govt all in its chase for the almighty dollar. Oh and blaming others for there ignorance aye mike?

27/02/2013 12:03:10 p.m.

Mike wrote:

Actually Kyoto Protocol has destroyed more rain forrest in Indonesia and Malaysia than Palm Oil.

The way Kyoto Protocol was hijacked to protect the worst polluters in the world (like the EU) and the international pressure to sign up for this travesity of so-called enviromental protection which does nothing of the sort, forced countries hands like Indonesia.

The Kyoto cost of rainforest was too high for Indonesia, so their solution, burn off 50 billion tonnes of rainforest before coming under Kyoto where they would be penalised for every tonne of rainforrest removed after that date. This isn't Palm Oil at fault, its Kyoto Protocol. Once the rainforrest has been burnt off, they need to use the land somehow, and palm oil has been planted on much, but it was not cleared for palm oil, it was cleared for Kyoto Protocol. How about the living wages of those in Indonesia living on the palm oil industry? What about the rubber plantations and other sustainable farming? Indonesia has real poverty and what we have here is the left supporting poverty of others. The left when you get down to it would prefer to see people starving in the streets than people be practicing sustainable farming.

Now if we tossed out Kyoto Protocol and set a net emission per sq km, then it would be economically viable to keep rainforrests like Indonesias. But the worlds worst carbon polluters weren't protecting the enviroment, they were protecting their right to pollute at the expnese of the rest of the world, like Indonesia!

27/02/2013 11:10:51 a.m.

Vicki wrote:

stuff tastes gross anyway, I don't buy anything with palm oil in it but then they feed NZ stock on it so...