Dr. Bronner’s Proves Sustainable Palm Oil Production is Possible!
Fair Trade Project Pioneers Viable Alternative to Destructive Conventional Practices
May 1, 2013
Dr. Bronner’s – the best selling brand of organic and Fair Trade soaps worldwide, believes production of Palm Oil can be fair, profitable and sustainable.
Dr. Bronner’s has released an animated video that tells the story of their Fair Trade and Organic palm oil operation in Ghana’s Eastern Region. To view the video entitled “Dr. Bronner’s Fair Trade Palm Oil: Animated”, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03Jm8xv4sg
Environmental and sustainability advocates have been carrying out a boycott of Palm Oil and products that contain Palm Oil for the past few years. This is due to wide spread concern that plantations are decimating precious rainforests in South East Asia, displacing and threatening the existence of the Orangutan.
Dr. Bronner’s Organic Body Care is proving that not all palm oil production has to be destructive and that sustainable Palm Oil production is possible. In fact, this eco-warrior, family-owned company strongly believes in the benefits of Palm Oil to the skin and more importantly, the benefits of sustainable Palm Oil to the environment and the communities that grow it.
“As more brands start to announce commitments to shifting to sustainable sources of palm oil we want to educate consumers about our own efforts that have created fair and sustainable supply chains for all major ingredients used in our products,” explains David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. “Considering the negative impact of conventional palm oil production, we are particularly proud to have demonstrated that palm oil can be produced in a fair, responsible, and sustainable way.”
Palm oil is an ingredient used in about half of all products sold in grocery stores throughout the world. To supply the massive demand and create arable land for homogenized palm tree plantations, rainforests from Brazil to Borneo are destroyed by industrial clear-cutting and strategic burning.
Often, these plantations in developing tropical nations are run by multi-national corporations that exploit farmers and labourers, trample native land rights, and do nothing to improve workers’ communities or standard of living. In Borneo, this practice of industrial palm oil production is destroying the last remaining natural orangutan habitats. Around the world, the slash-and-burn approach to natural resources is destroying precious ecosystems to the point of mass extinction.
“While palm plantations are among the worst culprits of conventional corporate industrial agriculture, many other industrially grown conventional crops have similar negative impacts,” David Bronner continues. “Any crop can be grown sustainably or unsustainably, and palm is no exception.”
Dr. Bronner’s – Committed to Sustainable Palm Oil
Palm is one of the most chemically rich and diverse oils on offer; providing vitamin E, a wide range of fatty acids, glycerine and oils that contain many other trace nutrients.
Dr. Bronner’s uses sustainable, certified organic and Fair Trade Palm Oil in all of their bar soaps. Rest assured, the Palm Oil Dr. Bronner’s uses is harvested from sustainable farmland in Ghana, Africa where there are no orangutans and no rainforests.
Dr. Bronner’s has worked with 100 small growers of sustainable oil Palms in Ghana. Converting them to organic practices and building an “organic only” Palm oil processing plant that is based on the traditional system commonly used by women entrepreneurs.
Dr. Bronner’s Palm Oil project is part of the company’s larger efforts in building fair trade programs for all their major ingredients, including Coconut Oil from Sri Lanka and Olive Oil from Israel and Palestine. This ensures that the numerous people working in the complete processing chain for all their oils will be fairly compensated and a fair trade premium will support local development projects. For Dr. Bronner’s it’s about putting back what you take from the land and its local community.
Unique to Fair Trade, local community development projects funded by sales of certified Fair Trade products are chosen jointly by local farmers, workers, and other stakeholders for the betterment of the community at large. The project’s Fair Trade Fund has invested in several notable development projects including building nurses’ quarters for a local hospital and constructing four deep water wells to provide clean drinking water for the community. In addition, Dr. Bronner’s has helped local farmers to replant their palm trees with more productive varieties through a zero-interest loan program.
The most recent initiative was the purchase, distribution, and installation of 5,000 mosquito bed nets for local households to help reduce malaria infection. This project was funded in part by a crowd-funding campaign in the United States, which raised $47,100 in donations.
Dr. Bronner’s Pure Organic Castile Bar Soap
Unlike any other soap on the market! A combination of certified organic extra virgin coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils, together with pure essential oils, creates a unique soap that cleans effectively without being aggressive. The smooth, velvety lather leaves skin silky and refreshed. Available in: Peppermint, Lavender, Almond, Tea Tree, Eucalyptus, Unscented Baby-Mild, Rose and Citrus Orange.
RRP $5.95 / 140g Bar
Dr. Bronner’s products are available at David Jones department stores, health and natural product and organic stores nationally.
Stockist number: 03 9572 3311 or visit Dr. Bronner’s at www.drbronner.com.au
For further information on Dr Bronner’s, product samples or to interview David Bronner, President of Dr Bronner’s please contact:
Belinda Andrade, PR Chicks, 02 9700 7107, [email protected]