Unilever Exposed as just Another Evil Corporation

Found this article from 11th December 2009. I've searched and found nothing, so I feel this deserves to be posted and not fall by the wayside.

UNILEVER -

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever employed 174,000 people and had a worldwide revenue of €40.5 billion in 2008

160 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product. From feeding your family to keeping your home clean and fresh, our brands are part of everyday life

With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people's lives in so many different ways

So that was a brief desciption of who Unilever are, and how big they are. Here is the story -

A company that produces many of Britain’s best-known household brands has been exposed as contributing to the destruction of rainforests by buying thousands of tonnes of illegal palm oil.

Unilever, which uses palm oil in its Flora and Stork margarines, Dove toiletries and Persil washing powder among many other products, will today announce that it is cutting links with Sinar Mas, Indonesia’s largest palm oil company.

Unilever is acting after being shown photographic evidence of Sinar Mas clearing rainforest in protected areas, including reserves for the country’s endangered orang-utan population

So they have found out that one of there fellow suppliers are destroying valueable habitat, so they cut ties.

So do we flame them or say, "well done for caring and cutting the ties?"

Not so fast to say they are a good company with a kind heart.......READ THIS -

The Anglo-Dutch company, which claims to be a leader in protecting rainforests and chairs the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), was informed almost two years ago about Sinar Mas’s illegal activities.

It cancelled the £20 million annual contract in the past few days after learning that Greenpeace was about to publish a dossier of evidence

After reading that, I only have one, not so great opinion of Unilever. For me, this exposes yet another Global Player as only caring about their precious $$$ and not giving a hoot about the Environment.

The situation in Indonesia is grave -

The growth of the palm oil industry in Indonesia has turned the country into the third-largest emitter of CO2, after China and the US. Indonesia has the fastest rate of deforestation, losing an area the size of Wales every year

For a more detailed account of Indonesia's environmental problem, take a look at this site here -

www.globalforestwatch.org...


It really makes me angry that we live in a World where it's not governments who even rule, it's corporations and $$$.

Makes me sick.

G.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

www.unilever.com...

en.wikipedia.org...