Friday, July 29, 2011

Good morning,

Do not buy products made of palm oil! Palm oil plantations are replacing large areas of rainforest in many countries including Malaysia and Indonesia. Further, palm oil may increase the risk of cardiovascular desease due to the high concentration of statured fats.

Please scroll down for more sobering facts.

Thanks for reading,

Your Living Green editor

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Palm Oil is a seed crop grown in many parts of the world, the majority being in Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a form of edible vegetable oil used in many food and non-food industries, including but not limited to, cookies, crackers, popcorn, frozen dinners, low-fat dairy, candy, soap and cosmetics. More recently, it has been used in biofuels.

Orangutans are found exclusively on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The biggest threat to orangutans in the wild is from illegal logging of trees. The demand for palm oil is high and as a result these plantations are destroying the orangutan's natural habitat.

Sustainable yield palm oil is very important to the livelihood of millions of people in Indonesia. But when it is produced NON-sustainably, thousands of orangutans perish each year, due to clear cutting of rainforests and uncontrolled burns.

It's estimated an area the size of three football fields is cut down every day, displacing forest residents - including the already endangered orangutan.