29 March 2010
Alongside T-world, Peppermint magazine hits stores today – it’s a sweet sweet day for magazine lovers!
My role in Peppermint is considerably smaller than Editing T-world but it’s nonetheless a pleasure and a privilege to be part of Peppermint, making a difference and promoting eco-fashion!
My little piece is about food choices, and my current ethical battle between most of the yummy things I’ve loved for years (Tim Tams, Kit Kats) and their makers’ insistence on included non-sustainable palm oil in the recipes, and not labelling it. Palm Oil leads to catastrophe – deaths of many many Orangutans, who are facing extinction, and many other animals including Tigers. And while burning rainforest and planting oil palms may have short term benefits to the people on the land, more often than not it doesn’t. Sustainable palm oil is available, but isn’t being used as: a) palm oil is currently not labelled on products – it can be labelled as ‘vegetable oil’ or under other guises; and b) consumer demand is not (yet) strong enough to push these companies towards using the sustainable option.
Nick Xenophon (SA independent) has put forward a bill (the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling – Palm Oil) Bill 2009) in the senate to make labeling compulsory. I will be devastatingly impressed to be in the first nation on earth to make palm oil labeling compulsory.
Lots of people are currently working very hard to have palm oil labelled on all products which include it. I hear on the street a quite large organisation is about to make the pledge and if it happens, I will certainly like them apples. You can have your say on the bill, currently being considered in parliament, by writing to: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au It’s important that government know this is important to a large number of people, otherwise this is an easy bill to put in the ‘too hard’ basket. I naively thought that cute and furry would be a pretty sexy platform. But apparently cute and furry don’t vote. Orangs are 97% human… perhaps they need the vote? Then perhaps they’ll have the right not to be murdered for cheap food ingredients.
Anyway, if you could drop the good people of government a line at: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au telling them why you support the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling – Palm Oil) Bill 2009 (catchy name, yes?) that would be fantastic. Me and many furry friends will love you for it.
