2015 has been a powerful year in RAN’s Conflict Palm Oil Campaign. RAN Palm Oil Activists have worked tirelessly to keep the pressure on PepsiCo and the rest of Snack Food 20 to cut Conflict Palm Oil from their supply chains once and for all. This year, activists from around the country stepped up to become campaign leaders in their communities, to brand-jam PepsiCo’s store displays and vending machines, and take the campaign to the front door of some of the campaign’s biggest laggards.
Thank You to all of the incredible activists who have made this campaign run over the last year– the campaign couldn’t have come as far as it has without your dedication to protecting rainforests and the communities of people and wildlife that rely on them! Here are some of the years highlights:
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19 passionate activists gathered at the Palm Oil Action Leaders Summit in California. The activists spent four days training to organize campaign events and actions in their communities over the year and ended the summit by organizing a flashmob action in San Francisco!
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Activists “re-branded” Quaker displays in grocery stores around the country, asking consumers “Are you feeding your family Conflict Palm Oil?” and drawing the connection between PepsiCo (the parent company of Quaker) and the child and forced labor in the supply chain of PepsiCo products like Quaker Chewy Bars.
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Activists from around the Southwest visited the Nissin Foods headquarters in Los Angeles early in the morning to share the campaign’s demand — that the company address its Conflict Palm Oil problem — with employees as they poured into work in the morning.
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The Chicago Palm Oil Action Team talked about the campaign with hundreds of Hillshire Brands employees on their way into work and handed them postcards with the campaign demands as they protested outside of Hillshire’s headquarters.
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Palm Oil Activists around the world declared that PepsiCo’s sub-par palm oil policy is #OutOfOrder by sticking hundreds “Out of Order” signs on PepsiCo vending machines and soda fountains globally.
We’ve done some great work this year and have come far in our work to build the movement of activists fighting against Conflict Palm Oil, for rainforest protections, for labor rights, and for a stable climate. Our work is far from done. PepsiCo has yet to commit to a global responsible palm oil policy and in 2016, it will be up to us to build upon our work and escalate our actions to ensure that PepsiCo agrees to eliminate this devastation from its products once and for all.
Thanks for all of your incredible work over this year. Rest and celebrate your great work over this holiday — you deserve it — we’re looking forward to amping up this campaign with you in 2016.
