Was your candy a threat to the climate

"So was your candy a threat to the climate"

"Debater: the Animals die, nature is destroyed and people suffer – I have seen it with my own eyes."

"This is an opinion piece. It is the writer who stands for the views that are put forward in the text, not Against."

"the DEBATE. Now it is christmas month, hej tomtegubbar hit in the glasses, julskum, chocolate, gingerbread and candles. Cozy december is associated with family, love and warmth. "

"But behind all of this is a warm, welcoming and loving hiding a horrible story – and it's called palm oil. And it is available in our candy, chocolate, pastries, and snacks. The palm oil is won from the oljepalmen, an efficient plant that provides huge returns in relation to what it costs to plant. "

"to oljepalmen to be able to grow so are being converted, often illegally, some of the world's oldest and most unique tropical forests, which also produces oxygen for us to breathe. "

"Species like orangutans, elephants, rhinoceros, tiger, gibbons gets severely affected. When the forest disappears so disappears also these unique species from the area forever and there is no turning back, they never come back. "

"Vital wetlands for both people and animals, drained and torrläggs, then set fire to the area and burns the soil and then plant the oljepalmen. "

"many packs can you read that a product contains sustainable palm oil RSPO (Round table on sustainable palmoil), which is a so-called ”sustainability certification” and should work much like the REQUIREMENTS, the MSC and the Swan. "

"Some ”guarantees” to be achieved, that you should be able to trace the oil back to the plantaget, so-called ”traceable palm oil”, not clearing new forest areas for oljepalmen, do not use chemicals and is not draining wetlands is illegal. "

"RSPO shall be for ”sustainable” palm oil. On paper it looks good but how does it actually mean in practice? "

"some time ago I travelled to Sumatra in Indonesia. In the three weeks I was in the province of Riau in order to find out if there really is such a thing as ”sustainable palm oil”. "

"The first thing that struck me was that there was no natural forest left at all, but everything is replaced by oil palm – a monoculture where nothing can live except oljepalmerna. Along with three helpers from Indonesia, I travel mile after mile for hours without the scenery never changes. Row after row of oil palm, like a green uninhabitable desert. "

"We met small-scale farmers who told us how their activities and visions were shattered when they became intvingade in palmoljeindustrin against their will. They wanted to cultivate chili, papaya, cassava and other edible crops. "

"I was talking with foundations and organizations that talked about how some planters use child labor, slave-like working conditions and human rights violations where there is a threat, assault and murder are not uncommon. "

"I interviewed a woman in a village, she belonged to the urfolket, malay. She was the oldest. She told me that they had lived there for thousands of years, and how everything changed when the palm oil and plantation took over their country. "

"not so long ago lived the people of what the rain forest gave, the they had done for generations. They used the forest as a pharmacy and pantry. They used to cultivate rice in small fields and fish in the streams, they had a good life. "

"Now is the rice paddies away and destroyed and replaced with the dried-out palm plantation, the forest is destroyed and is no more. Fish, they can't do anymore for the fish die and people get sick of the water due to the chemicals palmoljeindustrin use on the fields to keep weeds and pests away. "

"the Stories are far from unique. There are lots of similar stories around the ”palmoljeland"

"Words that are locally produced, sustainability and health are important and all the rage, why does not palm-oil, which manufacturers use in chocolate, cakes, nougatkräm etc? "

"We consumers have the power, we can put our foot down, we can ask uncomfortable questions to the manufacturers, we can choose exactly the be we want to buy. "

"It is our right to choose right, but it is also our obligation to do so. We can make a difference and it is possible to turn negative trends into positive ones. "

"I have see with your own eyes how forests are destroyed and harvested, how people and animals are exposed to very great suffering, huge areas where nothing in the long term will be able to live. And all because we are at home in Sweden shall have our chocolate, our gingerbread cookies and our candy? "

"Or is it just a cheaper option for the manufacturers? I have decided. As long as palmindustrin can't guarantee these obvious points, then I will all the days of the week opt-out palmoljeprodukter when I go shopping: "

"by Joakim odelberg, broadcasted, bevarandefilmare, photographer, influences"

"n Join in the debate and comment on the artikelnn – like Aftonbladet Debate on Facebook."