By Robin Averbeck

Breaking News: Kellogg announces stronger Palm Oil and Deforestation Policies including protections for human rights defenders and a commitment to restoration!

I’ve got some greeeeaat news to share with you today! Kellogg Company has just released one of the most comprehensive palm oil and deforestation policies we’ve seen to date; including being the first company to include protections for human rights defenders! YES!

And YOU made sure Kellogg got the message, loud and clear: you sent over 40,000 emails to its CEO, blasted its social media, and now Kellogg has made its strongest commitment to address deforestation and human rights abuses for palm oil! Yoooouuu did it!!!

Our undercover field investigations exposed that 8 major brands sourced illegal palm oil from a protected forest reserve in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem. And when we published our rankings of how snack food companies stack up when it comes to rainforest destruction, Kellogg was at the bottom of the bunch.

So what’s different about these policies? What’s going to change? Well I’m glad you asked: Kellogg has made a number of meaningful and precedent-setting commitments, including:

  1. Not only protecting remaining forests but also restoring forests and ecosystems that have been destroyed or damaged;
  2. Immediately suspending companies that threaten or do harm to human rights defenders, communities, and workers;
  3. Undertaking a consistent, transparent approach to grievances filed on their suppliers and taking strong action to suspend them when they’re found falling short; and
  4. Participating in and funding on-the-ground approaches which fully respect local communities’ rights.

But more work remains. The 8 major brands we exposed in our investigations — including Kellogg — have not yet publicly cut ties with Conflict Palm Oil producers deforesting Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem. And as the global climate crisis deepens, deforestation expands, and human rights abuses continue on, multinational corporations must make meaningful commitments and back them up with robust and transparent actions. 

I want to thank you so much for helping us move a corporate giant. Now will you help us move all eight companies to protect the Leuser Ecosystem and publicly cut ties to illegally produced palm oil?

TAKE ACTION 

Kellogg’s new palm oil and deforestation policies are an important step forward. But a paper promise is meaningless if there’s no action to back it up. Now it’s up to Kellogg and the 7 other companies to turn these commitments into real on-the-ground actions and results for communities, workers, and forests. 

There is no time to waste.