Leighton Buzzard girls pressure Kellogg's to stick to sustainable promise with million signature petition

Two determined Leighton Buzzard girls are taking on cereal giant Kellogg's, urging it to "promise a better future for the palm oil industry".

Asha and Jia Kirkpatrick, aged 12 and 15, first featured in the newspaper when they started a petition demanding the company to "stop destroying rainforests for cheap palm oil". With the petition gaining thousands of signatures and national media attention in 2018, the company told the press that it had "updated its global palm oil policy and launched its global deforestation policy".

But the girls claim that the company has made "minimal progress" and "isn't updating the public".

Kellogg's told the LBO that it has offered Asha and Jia a meeting with its global sustainable sourcing expert.

The girls told the LBO: "With one million signatures, we can demand another meeting with Kellogg’s, pressure other companies to make their palm oil sustainable and spread more awareness about this issue."

Mum Harvinder said: "After watching a moving documentary about the effects of palm oil, Asha and Jia wanted to take a stand. They researched big brands using the most unsustainable palm oil and decided to take on Kellogg's.

"They have now been shortlisted for the Future Leaders Award by the Climate Coalition. The ceremony is in parliament on 27th February!"

A Kellogg’s spokesman said: “We’ve had a continued dialogue with Asha and Jia since December 2018, and we have recently offered them a meeting with our Global Sustainable Sourcing Expert. Since 2009, Kellogg has been committed to working with our global suppliers to support the production of sustainable palm oil from sources that are environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable.

"We have continued to evolve our strategies and actions to ensure that we are incorporating best practices and learnings from our own experiences, our suppliers, peer companies and industry organisations. In 2020, we strengthened our commitment by setting a goal of procuring 100 per cent Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Physically Certified palm oil by end of 2025.

"It’s great that this progress has been acknowledged in the recent WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard, where we were ranked in the top 25 per cent across manufacturers, retailers and hospitality companies and recognised as being ‘well on the path’."