Palm Oil Newsroom

Activists Drop Banner on Grain Exchange Skyway to Call out Cargill

Release Date: 
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Contacts: Margaret Swink, 415.720.0080
               Ashley Schaeffer, 707 391 8208 (on the ground in MN)

Free downloadable photos and b-roll available.

General Mills Moves Away From Rainforest Destruction

Release Date: 
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Minneapolis, Minn. – America’s favorite food company, General Mills (GIS), is taking a crucial step to protect rainforests today, with the release of a new palm oil policy that limits the company’s exposure to an increasingly controversial commodity. The company’s new policy, along with previous actions to move away from problematic suppliers like Sinar Mas Group, puts them in the front of efforts by the U.S. food sector to address deforestation resulting from palm oil.

Twins vs Rangers Takes A Sudden Swing At Saving Rainforests

Release Date: 
Sunday, September 5, 2010

Minneapolis, Minn. – As the Twins pulled into the eighth inning of their closing home game against the Texas Rangers, the crowd was treated to a few unscheduled advertisements. Instead of Cargill’s usual announcements promoting hot dogs, a large banner, hung by activists from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), was unfurled from behind home plate, making Cargill’s usual advertisement change to read “Cargill Destroys Rainforests.” Fans started chattering in the stands as the banner was held until stadium officials asked activists to take it down. No one was arrested.

Banks Make a Shift Toward Greener Lending

Blasting off mountaintops to reach coal in Appalachia or churning out millions of tons of carbon dioxide to extract oil from sand in Alberta are among environmentalists’ biggest industrial irritants. But they are also legal and lucrative.

Banks Make a Shift Toward Greener Lending
New York Times
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Green group slams Cargill over SMART palm oil

Environmentalists on Friday criticized a decision by agribusiness giant Cargill Inc to continue buying palm oil from Indonesian firm PT Smart Tbk after SMART received a mixed score in a green audit.

Greenpeace has alleged in its reports that SMART -- which is controlled by Indonesia's Widjaja family, owners of the Sinar Mas conglomerate -- cleared forests in Kalimantan without completing the proper paperwork and destroyed carbon-rich peatlands.

Green Group Slams Cargill over SMART palm oil
Reuters
Friday, August 27, 2010

Cargill Hoodwinked by Palm Oil Audit Widely Panned as Misrepresentative

Release Date: 
Thursday, August 26, 2010

San Francisco – In the wake of an audit confirming accusations of environmental abuses by the controversial Indonesian palm oil supplier Sinar Mas, Cargill has announced a decision to continue business as usual relations with the disgraced palm oil provider. Posted only as an update to a section of their website, Cargill’s decision is an unexpected step after months of public expectation that the company would sever ties with the large Indonesian palm oil producer.

Rainforest Action Network Welcomes Cargill’s Palm Oil Announcement

Release Date: 
Thursday, July 29, 2010

San Francisco – Today, major palm oil trader Cargill announced a new agreement to provide Unilever with palm oil that is certified as segregated “at every step of the supply chain.” Both Unilever and Cargill are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

In the Battle to Save Forests, Activists Target Corporations

The image of rainforests being torn down by giant bulldozers, felled by chainsaw-wielding loggers, and torched by large-scale developers has never been more fitting: Corporations have today replaced small-scale farmers as the prime drivers of deforestation, a shift that has critical implications for conservation.

In the Battle to Save Forests, Activists Target Corporations
Yale 360
Thursday, June 24, 2010

Rumble in the Jungle: Activists vs Palm Oil

Wake up in the morning. Enjoy a warm, soapy shower. Eat a bowl of cereal, perhaps with soy milk. Dab on some lipstick ...

The Atlantic
The Atlantic
Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Rainforest Action Network Stands By Evidence that Cargill is Destroying Rainforests

Release Date: 
Thursday, May 6, 2010

Minneapolis, Minn. – Rainforest Action Network (RAN) released the following statement today in response to Cargill’s denial of the evidence presented in our May 4, 2010 report, Cargill’s Problem with Palm Oil: A Burning Threat in Borneo.

“No one wishes more than we do that Cargill wasn’t destroying rainforests. Pictures and maps don’t lie, however.

“We stand by the evidence released in our report that Cargill’s plantations in Indonesia are cutting down rainforests, violating the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and are out of compliance with Indonesian law.”

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