I HAVE some very good news about the world’s biggest fast food chain, McDonald’s, which has committed to the elimination of deforestation from their global supply chains, the first fast food chain to do so.
This is the direct result of nearly a quarter of a million signatures on a petition circulated by one of the world’s many environmentally aware concern groups, sumofus.org.
The company has announced that it will be releasing action plans for five of its priority products: palm oil, beef, fibre-based packaging, coffee and poultry, the production of which leads to deforestation on a massive scale.
This is particularly significant news for deforestation in South America, where vast tracts of land are cleared for grazing for the cattle that end up in a McDonald’s, and in South East Asia, particularly Borneo, where again huge tracts of jungle are cleared for palm oil plantations for the fast food chains.
Sumofus.org says in a statement: ‘For more than a year we and our partners have worked with McDonald’s to help it understand the deforestation risk in its supply chain, and urged it to adopt stronger standards. But without your urging (the petition), the company wouldn’t have taken the issue seriously. This is a tremendous step forward for the climate, tropical forests and endangered species’. So, petitions can work, sign them.
On the subject of endangered species, did you know that the giraffe is rapidly becoming endangered?
An article in a British magazine* points out that population numbers of Africa’s giraffe species have fallen by 40 percent over the past 15 years, from 140 000 to 80 000 and that the West African sub-species is the most endangered large mammal on the continent.
Ironically, the giraffe’s worst enemies are the ivory poachers, because giraffe meat is favoured as bush meat rations for active poachers, particularly in the so-called Democratic Congo.
Other giraffe poachers operate in Tanzania, where giraffe marrow bone and brain tissue are believed to cure AIDS.
To end on a brighter note, I’m going to light up this column with a solar jam jar.
I have acquired another solar light**, this time an ordinary screw-top Consul bottling jar fitted with a small solar panel in the lid.
The tiny lights are under the lid and therefore light up the jar and then the surroundings, and light up it does!
The jar illuminates the whole deck table and if you move close enough to it you can read the South Coast Herald by the light.
It has a handle so that it can be carried or hung on something like a lantern and is altogether a most efficient little gimmick.
It’s decorative too, as you can put anything you like in the jar: we have seashells, but you could have a flower for a romantic dinner, some baubles at Christmas, in fact anything you like. Great idea.
Cheers!
*The Week: The Best of the British and Foreign Media.
**Contact: David Hallé 082-300-4283
