For Valentine’s Day, RAN-Twin Cities activists and kids dropped off more than 100 children’s Valentines to the General Mills Headquarters. Through the Valentine delivery and some great songs they wrote for the occasion, they asked General Mills to have a heart and save the rainforest!
General Mills’ staff greeted the group, offered them cupcakes, and provided them with letters reiterating their stance on palm oil. However, we know that by buying their palm oil from Cargill, General Mills is violating its own sustainability policy. By the way, have you heard that Climate Counts rated General Mills as a company with a much better environmental reputation than it deserves in reality?
Cheerios, Trix, and other GM products marketed to children may say they promote healthy hearts, but we know better. General Mills uses Cargill palm oil in these and more than 100 products. We know that Cargill does not source responsible palm oil and have the case studies to prove it. The palm oil in General Mills’ products causes deforestation, climate change, and habitat destruction that will prove incredibly unhealthy (to say the least) for young people. Deforestation causes 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and palm oil is a huge culprit in this.
Watch this new RAN video that shows how a child might act upon realizing the rainforest destruction served up in a bowl of Cheerios:
Please tell GM’s CEO to stop buying palm oil from Cargill that destroys rainforests! Today is a national call-in day, so call when you read this (and/or any following day)! Thank you so much for your support!
Maia grew up in Minnesota on an acre of land near the Gateway Trail. She studied archaeology and music at the University of Michigan and considers herself a Midwesterner through and through. In the summers of 2007 and 2008, Maia performed thesis research in Belize. Her experiences studying anthropology at home and in Central America helped shape her understanding of the volatile relationships between human societies and the environment in the past and today. This work inspired her search for solutions to climate change and environmental degradation that would also answer the social justice problems we face today. She has been a member of the National Council of the Student Environmental Action Coalition and helped to host statewide conferences and retreats through the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition.
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RYSE is the youth branch of RAN, Rainforest Action Network, which works to protect the Earth and support human rights through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
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children are incredible motivators for change, and change is definitely what we need when it comes to palm oil! Indonesia is the world’s top producer today, and if current projections for expansion continue, by 2020 it will be the number one green house gas emitter, over taking the US and China. Definitely not healthy for the next generation!