Parting with Palm

Recently Food Empowerment Project completed our website with our final section on Ethical Food Choices. Included in that section was a description of the palm oil industry.

With many of the sections on our website I am very familiar with why we are discussing the issues, and I had already made changes to what I eat based on what I knew or was learning.

With palm I was less familiar. In fact, much of what I had been reading (through the work of my paid job) was the use of palm for biodiesel and the negative impacts this was having on the animals and environment.

However, when our volunteer writer, Rick Kelley, sent the first draft, I knew immediately I was going to have to make changes.

And that is why I decided to write this blog, because many of you, like me, are learning about this issue and do not want to contribute to what is happening in places like Malaysia, Sumatra, and Cameroon, where deforestation has been devastating to animals such as tigers, rhinos, elephants, and of course, the orangutans, who have actually been killed in order to clear land for palm plantations.

Meanwhile, workers are exploited by the working conditions and chemical use, and indigenous people are forced off their land to make room for palm plantations.

Now, I know shopping or eating by our ethics can’t solve all of the problems impacting the animals and people, but for those of us at Food Empowerment Project, it is an important first step. When we started learning more about slavery in the chocolate industry, we did our research and did a lot of outreach on the issue. And now we have started an effort to get Clif Bar to disclose where they source their chocolate from in order to make companies accountable to consumers who do not want chocolate from the slave trade.

So for those of you who have asked us to start a campaign on the palm issue, please know we just might, but we aren’t ready yet.

We know that some vegans have been a bit slow to come around to see how these social justice issues are connected (whether it be human or non-human animals), but we are hopeful that these are all issues we can work on together.

Getting off margarine has been easier than I thought, but admittedly, I am not there yet. I have been holding on to our last stick of Earth Balance so as to not waste it. But my pancakes taste fine without margarine as does my corn on the cob. But it is something I think about now, and just like with other cruelty-free vegan choices I have made in my life, I am sure I will have dreams that I am accidentally eating food with palm oil, and I know it will eventually become routine to look for it when I am reading ingredients.

To make it easier, Food Empowerment Project has revised our vegan food list. The list still includes vegan products, but now those with palm ingredients have a line going through them. We decided to keep them listed so that people would not be confused as to whether we knew of a product’s existence or not. We have done this to make it convenient for people who do care about this issue to quickly see what products are vegan and which ones do or do not contain palm.

We ask you to please help us to populate our list of palm-free vegan products, and don’t be scared to look at the list – I imagine many of your favorites will still be listed!

A HUGE thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to double check our list so we knew which products did and did not contain palm oil: Lisa Goetz, Molly Jordan, Jessica Spain, Melissa Tappis, Joseph Valdez, Michelle Waters, Heather Veleanu, and Nikki Woelk.

Photo courtesy of Ashley Schaeffer/RAN. Thank you!

Is Divine truly divine?

Food Empowerment Project has received a lot of pushback from corporations and those with chocolate certification systems about our chocolate list because we do not simply give a blanket approval to these schemes; however, we do pride ourselves on recognizing that this issue is complex and there are a lot of grey areas.

When it comes to comments about our list, we have received the most from consumers who are disappointed about particular companies (such as Clif Bar), but the most feedback we have received from companies is regarding Divine Chocolate.

We have had numerous phone calls and email discussions about Divine, and our stance has been that since child labor was found in the fields of their cooperative, we could not (at the time) put them on our recommended list. We have never said the door was shut.

Recently, I was contacted by the CEO of Divine regarding our stance on cacao from Ghana. We had a lengthy conversation about where we were coming from, and she took the time to explain to me what was happening at the Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative, an organization established in Ghana in 1993.

I am not going to go into that in this blog, because Divine’s website can explain it better than I, but she talked about their sourcing with pride. Wouldn’t it be great if all corporations could beam with pride and really mean it?

When I asked about the children found on the farm, she explained to me that “they” (the farmers) were working on this issue to make sure those problems with education and monitoring didn’t happen again.

And that stuck with me. She had been telling me that they were the only fair trade cooperative and I heard her, but not until she said “they” did I have this, well, epiphany. She didn’t say, “We are going to do this” or how any scheme was going to be adjusted, but what “they,” the farmers, were going to do.

When looking for solutions to the lack of access to healthy foods in communities of color and low-income communities, I have talked about one of the problems being not asking those who are living with it. I feel that decisions being made by well-intentioned people without input from those who are impacted is a mistake. 

And this struck me as the same thing. What is going to help end the issue of child slavery in the cacao industry may not come from Westerners telling the farmers what to do – they know their culture and they know what will work. (Please note, I am making a lot of qualifiers here if you can’t tell because I am not saying it is impossible for someone else to do – just a powerful perspective.)

These are farmers who are learning and wanting to improve the lives of their families. They aren’t getting paid for a certification they understand is a way out of poverty for themselves and their families. They are the owners of the farm.

As a vegan organization, we know that there is never going to be a way that anyone can or will ever convince us that animal products can be acquired without suffering – the animals are part of a commodity, not a system.

With something like this cooperative, however, we know that they are the ones living it and working on it, and therefore, things can change.

Oh, and to answer the question at the top, Divine is now on our recommended list.

If you have not already, please sign our petition to Clif Bar: Change.org/ClifBar

Blocked in China!

Recently an animal rights activist and supporter of Food Empowerment Project went to China to do some work for animals.

While there, she wanted to share with others the work we do at Food Empowerment Project. And well, she was surprised to find out that our website, www.foodispower.org, is blocked!

Now, as someone with a bit of a rebellious spirit – I admit, I felt a bit proud. Kind of like we are doing something that for some reason would upset the government in China.   Not that I want to upset the government in China (to some extent in the US we are no better when it comes to issues that concern me, like workers’ rights), but wow – it felt a little bit cool that they were paying attention to us.

But as an advocate, I was bummed that our message would not be reaching people with whom it might truly resonate and help. We want to help them understand the power of their food choices and why they need to stop the animal agriculture and fast food industries from taking over. We want them to know how indigenous people in Bolivia fought against water privatization and won, and how the US, like China, needs to take the rights of workers seriously. And if our message led them to boycott Coke and GMO products and helped them go vegan, we’d be thrilled!

I asked if she would look up some other animal websites to see if they were blocked – groups like Farm Sanctuary were not. So it must not be the farmed animal issues…

However, our other website, www.veganmexicanfood.com, was also blocked! Now that one I am not sure about – perhaps it’s the word “cruelty-free”?

Anyhow, if you have ideas about why F.E.P. and our recipes are being censored – let us know!

Thanks to A. Gung for letting us know and for her work for the animals, here and abroad.

Finally … almost July 1, 2012

Many people have been waiting for that date to come around since 2004. Why? It is the date that California steps up to the plate and bans the production of foie gras, a so-called delicacy made from the livers of ducks and geese who have been force-fed. Moreover, being a pioneer in anti-cruelty legislation, the state also bans the sale of this inherently cruel product.

In some ways this is a tough blog for me to write, as there are loads of people and organizations who played a major role in this fight for compassion, and it would be difficult to adequately cover them all. But this is just my perspective on this historic bill as someone who worked to pass it.

From 2000-2006, I was running an organization called Viva!USA and we had a long campaign to stop the sale of duck “meat” and feathers. We conducted investigations of factory farms across the U.S. and got corporations to make changes.

In the fall of 2003, Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) released their investigations of Sonoma Foie Gras, one of the few producers of foie gras in the country. (APRL also conducted investigations at Hudson Valley Foie Gras and foie gras farms in France.) 

 

The ALF played a role in some amazing outreach by exposing to the public what foie gras was about.

In 2003, I was approached by Teri Barnato, who was the head of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR), to see if Viva!USA would be interested in joining AVAR and Los Angeles Lawyers for Animals (specifically Orly Degani) to introduce legislation to stop the force feeding of ducks and geese for foie gras.

 

Teri was able to secure an author for the foie gras bill (Senator John Burton) by the end of 2003, and we were also joined by Farm Sanctuary. 

Now, my time spent at the Capitol, up until this point, was working to stop bills (mostly one that would allow the sale and importation of kangaroo skins into the state), but this was my first real involvement in passing legislation.  Although I strongly encourage participation in local legislation (county, city and state), I found it to be too uncomfortable for me – too full of compromises.

One of these compromises was the delay in enacting the bill that would ban foie gras. Instead of taking effect the next year, they allowed a 7-year phase-out period. Now, this was a deal the legislators made – not us. But I saw this as our insurance policy. If activists couldn’t get foie gras production shut down before then, by 2012, the law would make it happen. And this is where we are almost at now!

When you work on legislation, every committee hearing can make or break your bill. You could have worked for months and then in one hearing, it could be all over. All of the work, support and change you were trying to make would be gone in one hearing – possibly due to a single vote.  And, not surprisingly,  it is also very political – sometimes it is more a matter of how well legislators get along, or how they  have voted on each other’s bill. Yikes – too much for me. I prefer corporate campaigns. So to people, like my friend and colleague Jennifer Fearing (California State Director for HSUS), who has been incredibly successful at the Capitol for the animals, more power to you.

One of the most important components of the foie gras bill came from the author himself: SB 1520, as mentioned earlier, bans not just the force feeding of birds, but the actual sale of foie gras – a prohibition added by John Burton! Of course, we were in complete agreement and elated. Eventually, as the bill got closer to getting to the desk of the Governor, more of the larger groups started to pitch in. And then on the Governor’s desk – we wondered and worried.

One of the things that I hear now (when the bill is close to coming into effect) and I heard when we were working to pass it, was this ridiculous concept of the “slippery slope”  -- that once California banned foie gras, they might go on to prohibit other animal cruelties. As much as I wish there were indeed a slippery slope, the arguments made by those who profit off the suffering of these gentle birds should be called out for what they are saying. It is utter nonsense.

It was easy to remind the legislators that they are the ones passing the laws, and as much as I wanted them to ban the sale of animal products, were they really going to do it?

But those who profit at the expense of others (whether it be for animal products or chocolate) will say what they will to make them seem like the victims. To some it seems to be more about arrogance than anything else.

To have chefs rallying to be allowed to sell a product of cruelty and having parties is really unbelievable. I mean, really – having a party to say goodbye to a luxury item? As an activist I have heard the original quip “get a life” (when all I am trying to do is save some), but those who have parties for a luxury item put on a cracker?  Apparently the people paying a high price for this delicacy of despair have *nothing* better to do with their money? 

Talk about mixed-up priorities. 

I would call it selfish and ignorant only because these people must know and understand the suffering of the birds, because, otherwise, why would they be at a party to protest a law?

And that is something I feel like people forget is that this is indeed a law. Legislators and Governor Swarzenegger (who I would say was not an animal-friendly governor) signed it into law.

In a state like California, where we have communities that do not have access to healthy foods and many others that go hungry, you have to wonder about chefs crying over a luxury item. 

Something like this really makes you question where the priorities are in this country. It makes me shudder.

But for now, I will join others in sharing this long-awaited date. I will look at the ducks on the lakes and ponds and thank activists around the globe for their work in helping these precious, gentle birds have one less cruelty inflicted upon them.

A huge shout out to everyone who made calls and sent their letters and emails to legislators when we were working to pass SB 1520.  Groups big and small helped out in the end. Thanks also to those activists (and groups like APRL) who continue to expose the conditions suffered by factory farmed ducks and the cruelty behind foie gras. 

Photo at the top:  Quincy lives at Woodstock Farm Sanctuary.