Dear Editor:
Re: PepsiCo and the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests.
Did you know that Indonesia’s invaluable and irreplaceable rainforests are currently on fire in order to open up land to produce palm oil.
Palm oil is used in at least half of the products in your grocery store,including snack food made by PepsiCo.
PepsiCo gets this oil from companies that are currently destroying these pristine rainforests.
This practice is destroying wildlife, displacing thousands of people, making untold millions of people vulnerable to long-term respiratory illnesses.
To date PepsiCo has obfuscated their role in this travesty by hiding behind a woefully inadequate action plan that attempts to deflect their complicity in the continuing use of conflict palm 0il.
The rainforests of Indonesia are an irreplaceable part of the earth’s lungs,providing oxygen that we and other organisms need to survive,while filtering out pollutants.
Further, these forests are the only home for our relations such as the endangered Sumatran tiger,orangutans, rhinos and tigers, not to mention thousands of invertebrates.
I call upon you, the reader, to take action on behalf of the forests, wildlife and people of Indonesia.
Spread the word, check food labels closely for the type and source oil used, tell your food supplier that you will not patronize them if they sell conflict palm oil products and phone or write PepsiCo directly with your concerns.
Laurie Rockwell
Summerland