In the spirit of Halloween, I can’t think of a more appropriate time to discuss myself and Anna Beck’s commitment to banning conflict palm oil. It was during my time while I was living in Bali over four years ago that I became aware of what palm oil was. As I learned about local issues, I began to notice flyers with cute little orangutans on them, as well as other advertisements in health stores and on social media. I began to read what was behind these announcements. As an obsessed animal lover, I was initially drawn to the photos, but sadly as I read, I began to learn that due to the extraction of palm oil, populations of these sweet orangutans—as well as elephants, tigers, and rhinos—were quickly being pushed toward extinction. Large companies were extracting palm oil from the Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests to save pennies, but it was coming at a steep cost.
I couldn’t believe this was all happening on neighboring Indonesian islands such as Borneo and Sumatra—islands that are known for their rainforests and entire populations of indigenous people, as well as wildlife.
Conflict palm oil is found in nearly half of all packaged food products like snacks, candy, cereal, donuts, crackers, ice cream, and even soaps and lotions. Skyrocketing demand has driven massive, industrial palm oil plantations into millions of acres of formerly lush rainforests, worsening climate change, and causing widespread human and animal rights violations. Astonishingly, this saddening issue is something that isn’t well-known or even discussed in the western world.
Striving to be a conscious company, I only had to mention it a few times to our team and everyone in the office jumped on board in their commitment to having a conflict-free palm oil environment. To take it further, all of us at Anna Beck are passionate about sharing the message outside of the work place, and we stand with those fighting against it. We believe it starts with awareness so that others can join us in this movement.
The task may seem daunting, but there is something you can do about it. You can even start today! With Halloween just around the corner, we just kindly ask that you be aware of the Halloween candy you are buying. Please help fight conflict palm oil by only purchasing candy from conflict-free companies, or your local artisan candy shops. Below is a list of candies that do not contain conflict palm oil and for further reading please see our list of article links.
Xo,
Becky, founder and designer of Anna Beck
Common Palm Oil Free Halloween Candy:
Airheads (Perfetti Van Mili)
Baby Bottle Pops (Topps)
Blow Pops (Charms / Tootsie Roll Industries)
Boston Baked Beans (Ferrara)
Cadbury Carmello (Cadbury Schweppes)
Chewy Sweetarts (Wonka)
Dum Dum Pops (Spangler)
Dots (Tootsie Roll industries)
Fruit Snacks (Kellogs)
Gobstoppers (Wonka)
Gummy Bears (Brachs)
Hershey Kisses – Chocolate and Dark chocolate w/ Cherry (Hershey’s)
Hershey Nuggets – special dark and extra creamy with almond (Hershey’s)
Hershey’s – creamy milk chocolate w/ caramel (Hershey’s)
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars (Hershey’s)
Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate (Hershey’s)
Hershey’s w/ Almonds (Hershey’s)
Hershey’s Xtra Dark Assorted Squares (Hershey’s)
Hot Tamales (Just Born Quality Confections)
Jelly Beans (Members Mark)
M&Ms – Chocolate (Mars/Masterfoods)
M&Ms – w/ Peanuts (Mars/Masterfoods)
M&Ms – Raspberry (Mars/Masterfoods)
Mike & Ikes (Just Born Quality Confections)
Mounds (Mars)
Nerds Rope (Wonka)
Push Pops (Topps)
Red Vines Licorice (Red Vines)
Ring Pops (Topps)
Runts (Wonka)
Skors (Hershey’s)
Sour Punch Straws
Toblerone Swiss Milk Chocolate
Tootsie Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Rolls – Fruit and Tootsie mix (Tootsie Roll industries)
York Peppermint Patties (Hershey’s)
100 Grand (Nestle)
For additional reading on how you can help please check out the below links:
https://www.ran.org/conflict_palm_oil/
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2010/06/24/the-other-oil-spill
https://www.goldmanprize.org/blog/power-end-conflict-palm-oil-hands/
http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/8389/avoid-conflict-palm-oil-with-this-grocery-store-cheat-sheet
http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/What_can_i_do.php
https://www.primaterescue.org/have-a-primate-friendly-halloween-without-palm-oil/
https://www.groovycandies.com/candy-types/palm-oil-free-candy