Once You Lop, You Just Can't Stop

Food companies damaging climate through deforestation, says new report

Posted at 9:12 AM on 08 Nov 2007

The makers of such familiar products as Pringles, KitKat, and Philadelphia cream cheese are contributing to deforestation and climate change, says a new report from Greenpeace. Companies like Unilever, Kraft, and Nestle use palm oil from Indonesia in their products. And guess what happens in Indonesia when the palm-oil peddlers come calling? Virgin forests are cut down, valuable peatlands are drained, and all hell breaks loose. Such deforestation and drainage releases carbon dioxide -- in fact, Indonesia now ranks third in human-made carbon emissions, behind the U.S. and China. Demand for palm oil for cosmetics and biofuels is only upping the ante. Says Greenpeace U.K. Director John Sauven, "The big food giants are supporting the rapid growth of CO2 emissions that may render halting dangerous climate change impractical, if not impossible."

sources:  The Guardian, Reuters, Greenpeace