With the US Food and Drug Administration’s mandate for food manufacturers to remove artificial trans fats from the US food supply within three years, Friends of the Earth is concerned about deforestation with the demand for palm oil as a popular substitute.
“It’s heartening that the FDA has banned trans fats for the health of US consumers, but we must ensure this move does not create the perverse consequences of rain forest destruction and land grabbing in poor countries,” says International Forest Campaigner Jeff Conant.
“No advance in the health of US citizens should aggravate human rights violations in developing countries.”
The US government should create and enforce mandatory environmental and social standards on palm oil investment and palm oil purchasing.
It is critical, moving forward, to ensure that the inevitable uptick in palm oil imports does not destroy tropical rain forests and food sovereignty in palm-oil producing countries.
