Leighton Buzzard sisters’ petition puts pressure on Kellogg’s for palm oil policy
Two Leighton Buzzard girls who started a petition to persuade Kellogg’s to use sustainable palm oil are delighted to announce that the cereal giant has released a new policy.
Asha and Jia Kirkpatrick launched their campaign on the website change.org back in 2018 after watching a documentary about the plight of orangutans due to deforestation in Indonesia.
Upset, they uploaded their petition - which now has nearly 800,000 signatures - asking big brand Kellogg’s to lead the way and stop using irresponsible suppliers, while tracing palm oil “from seed to shelf”.
After two meetings with the company, the girls and their mother, Harvinder, met Kellogg’s representatives for the third time on February 14 to be told the good news.
Harvinder, 47, said: “The girls were surprised because the first two meetings didn’t go anywhere. Kellogg’s are going to change the way they work with farmers and smallholders to help improve their yield [so companies don’t cut down areas they shouldn’t].
“They will appoint an NGO [independent non-government organisation] to be the eyes and ears on the ground and have live tracking of any grievances, which will be reported in real time. If a mill is non-compliant, Kellogg’s will stop using the entire company, not just that mill.
“Asha asked some hard questions, such as ‘how will you show us that things have changed?’ so we are meeting up again in six months.”
Other new policies include investing in restoring forests, and safeguarding against the exploitation of workers, while Kellogg’s has joined the Palm Oil Transparency Coalition (POTC) and now requires suppliers to participate in the No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) framework.
Asha, 12, and Jia, 10, said: “We are both really happy, and everyone who signed the petition is saying it’s amazing.
“Kellogg’s have said a lot of good things, so it sounds like they will try and do it. We have mostly been eating own brand cereals with no palm oil in them, although more palm oil is in breakfast bars than cereals. Try and boycott palm oil and check whether it is sustainable or not.”
A Kellogg’s spokesman, said: “Although we use 0.1 per cent of the world’s palm oil, we have been working since 2009 to improve its sustainability. This February we updated our palm oil policy with new measures to combat deforestation, support for small holder farmers and to work toward 100% RSPO physically certified palm oil by the end of 2025.”