Comedians Claire Hooper, Josh Thomas and Tom Ballard have thrown their names behind the campaign to have products in Australia containing Palm Oil labelled as such.
These comedians have banded together to produce a video for Zoos Victoria to help highlight the plight of animals and ecosystems affected by the mass planting and cultivation of palm oil plantations, which have destroyed enormous tracts of natural habitat in South East Asia. Oragutans and Tigers are two of the more prominent species affected by natural habitat depletion, with the UN warning that Oragutans could be extint within a generation.
Zoos Victoria’s website states that:
Palm oil is found about 40 percent of the food products on our shelves and its rampant cultivation is destroying the Orangutan’s habitat at an alarming rate. The simple fact is that you can’t tell whether you are contributing to this crisis because palm oil is not labelled on most food products.
Most of the palm oil that ends up in our food is unsustainably harvested…A sustainable palm oil industry that does not destroy anymore virgin rainforest is a reality. The industry just needs to use land that has already been cleared. But right now there isn’t the demand for palm oil that is produced this way.
Once palm oil is labelled, consumers can actually drive a market for proper certified sustainable palm oil because they can demand it of manufacturers (as we’ve seen with Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance products).
Check out the Zoos Victoria Website to see the video, sign the petition to have products containing Palm Oil labelled and to learn more about the issue.