Would you stop buying certain foods if you knew some ingredients were causing animal extinction?

Question

After watching a program with my kids I was made aware that many foods sold in uk supermarkets contain palm oil..one in ten products to be precise
eg;breakfast cereal
cakes
biscuits
this oil is often farmed in areas that were rainforest and this is causing loss of habitat to many animals.Most severly effected are urangutans and they will be extint in the wild within 12 years if this is not stopped.
I find this shocking and wonder how many others know about this?
This was a bbc program .

The actual program was the really wild show.
I am aware that alot of selective broadcasting goes on with the bbc but this is a kids nature program..so why would it be untrue?

In answer to some comments I am aware of humans capacity for destruction and have thought about this issue before i saw this program.Urangutans are apes our closest cousins next to gorillas ..do they deserve to die because some idiot wants a bakewell tart?

Answer 1

We do have a responsiblility with the products we buy but so too do the supermarkets, really this is something quite big which needs greater media coverage.

Thanksx

Answer 2

I just checked the cereals I have in home and none have palm oil. I don't use pre-baked goods at all. I live in the USA, so I don't know if it is used here but I'll pay attention and not use those products. You should get involved by finding animal rights groups that may be boycotting the use of palm oil. You've done a lot by getting on Yahoo. Thank you.

Answer 3

No. I don't care how many animals become extinct: extinction is a natural process. What I think is more important is the economies of other countries. We, in the west, have no right to tell other countries what they should do with their rainforest. Britain would be covered in a forest too if we hadn't grazed it by introducing sheep. Perhaps you wouldn't feel the same way if urangutans stole your sandwiches when you went on picnics!

Answer 4

oh no another plant that could become extinct,well 100 voices from some country will cause no changes,it will be a small lose,but then again man has caused so many different extinctions that no one will really notice,think about it,before you saw this program have you really given the whole extinction thing a thought.....this will not be the first or last.....just one more for a ever growing list of things most humans can care less about, sad thought,but truths should not be masked,look at the whaling industries, we are told certain species will be gone and still we hunt them........bluntlessness is sad truth

Answer 5

Of course it would stop me from buying it. Besides, as some people have said before, palm oil is the stab of death to a healthy bloodvessel system, because it's refined oil - that kind of oil belongs into a motor, not into people. And by the way, refined sunflower oil is just as bad for your health, and the refining itself causes even more damage to the environment than the loss of forests (it's noxiuos as hell, like making gasoline).

Answer 6

Are you telling me that eating Bakewell Tart kills orang-utans?

There's a chain in there somewhere, surely. Where exactly, is the link? Is it the kind of oil? Then what you should be saying instead of 'because some idiot wants a Bakewell Tart', is 'because some idiot manifactures palm oil'. Please don't call me an idiot because I like Bakewell Tart!

Answer 7

No, I'd continue to eat the product. Extinction is not the end of the world ^^ well it is for that species but where one species dies another prevails and begins to change the course of the future. Change is a good thing in all its forms, no matter how you look at it.

Answer 8

Hell yes!!!
I cook everything in olive oil, but if that also caused extinction or harm to animals, then I would have to consider another alternative.
I do not eat cakes, biscuits or breakfast cereal.

Answer 9

Really? We are having enough problems with extinction already (with deforestation). Why make it greater by buying those kinds of foods. I say boycott but that's just me.

Answer 10

I didn't I won't eat anything with palm oil.
my folks just use canola oil i think, mon's always on a diet.
Is it in frozen pizza?