Demand transparency from Cargill | Rainforest Action Network

Demand transparency from Cargill

Email Cargill CEO Greg Page

Demand transparency from @Cargill about what #palmoil suppliers it does biz with http://ow.ly/bVfk6 via @RAN

Subject: Your Letter:

Dear Gregory Page,

Despite claims of progress, Cargill Inc still cannot guarantee that the palm oil it trades is free of human rights violations or environmental destruction.

Three years ago, Rainforest Action Network exposed Duta Palma's egregious practices through a case study on its Ledo Lestari plantation in West Kalimantan, Borneo. The report documented Duta Palma illegally burning rainforest to make way for more palm even though the plantation is just 3 miles from the community of Semunying Jaya. Exposed destroying an ecosystem of global importance and threatening this community's very survival despite being an RSPO member, Duta Palma still fails to resolve the social conflict rampant in its oil palm plantations.

Following the release of that report, Cargill publicly claimed that Duta Palma was not a supplier in 2008 or 2009 and that it didn't intend to do business with the company in 2010. But despite numerous requests from thousands of RAN supporters around the world, Cargill still has not disclosed the companies with which it will not trade. In fact, there has been no confirmation that Duta Palma did not regain its status as a Cargill supplier.

I am writing to call on Cargill to adopt a transparent approach to profiting from palm oil. If Cargill uses a no-trade list, what are the criteria you use to determine the companies from which you will not trade? We remain concerned that without a set of criteria that make clear the basic safeguards your suppliers must meet, you will continue to buy palm oil at the lowest possible cost while only making a minimal effort to buy from RSPO members. Duta Palma and many other traders are able to maintain RSPO membership despite social conflicts, human rights violations, and environmental devastation.

In July 2011, Cargill made a commitment to purchase 100% RSPO-certified palm oil for its entire supply chain by 2020 (excluding palm kernel oil). In its race to buy from 100% RSPO members, however, Cargill is blindly doing business with some of the most egregious palm oil companies, whose RSPO member stamp obscures the fact that the company is failing to adhere to the RSPO principles and criteria and failing to resolve its social conflict. The negative impact of Cargill's commitment is that the trading giant is buying palm oil from as many RSPO members as possible without any other internal company safeguards. In effect, this has resulted in Cargill outsourcing its values and its standards to the RSPO.

Without adopting key supply chain safeguards, such as around human rights abuses and species extinction, Cargill is not protecting its supply chain or the North American palm oil market from controversy.

With palm oil in half of all products for sale in US grocery stores, we have the right to know the full price of its production. Dozens of people gathered in front of your Hopkins office on July 9 to ask Cargill to be more forthright about its operations.

I'm joining with those activists that surrounded your office and thousands of others around the world to ask you to support communities like Semunying Jaya by conveying publicly your commitment to only trading palm oil that meets basic environmental and human rights safeguards.

Sincerely, [Your name], [Your address]

First Name Last Name Email address Street Street 2 City State/Province Postal / ZIP Code

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Three years ago, Rainforest Action Networkexposed palm oil company Duta Palmas rainforest-destroying practicesthrough a case study on one of its plantations in West Kalimantan, Borneo. Following the release of the report, Cargill publicly claimed that Duta Palma was not a supplier in 2008 or 2009 and that it didnt intend to do business with the company in 2010. But despite numerous requests from thousands of RAN supporters around the world, Cargill still has not disclosed the companies with which it will not trade. In fact, there has been no confirmation that Duta Palma did not regain its status as a Cargill supplier.

Until Cargill adopts supply chain safeguards and is transparent about its criteria for doing business with palm oil suppliers, the company has no way of ensuring that conflict-ridden and rainforest-destroying palm oil is not ending up in its supply chain and American homes.

With palm oil in half of all the products sold in US grocery stores, we deserve to know: What is Cargill doing to keep the worst of the worst palm oil out of its supply chain? Demand transparency now.