KFC’s secret recipe: rainforest destruction

Posted by Ian - 23 May 2012 at 1:10pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: Greenpeace
KFC no good for rainforests

No matter what you think about fast food, you’ll no doubt agree that rainforests shouldn’t be trashed to make packaging destined for the rubbish pile. But that’s exactly what’s happening. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is supplying KFC with packaging products that are made from Indonesia’s rainforests.

The original Colonel Sanders couldn’t have imagined the company he founded in 1930 would be driving rainforest destruction half a world away from where he started it in Kentucky, USA.

But a new Greenpeace International report, ‘How KFC is Junking the Jungle’ shows just that. Thorough supply chain research and forensic testing has revealed how KFC is buying paper products made from rainforest fibre, supplied by APP. APP sources rainforest logs from the habitat of the endangered Sumatran tiger. Last week the company made what it claimed were 'new commitments' to protect forests. In reality it will still continue to rely on rainforest clearance.

Today we are launching a global campaign to persuade KFC and parent company Yum! to clean up their act by cutting rainforest destruction out of their supply chains. To kick things off we’ve released a new video showing the Colonel freak out as his famous secret recipe is finally revealed.

Meanwhile our activists at the KFC headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky have also given executives a wakeup call they couldn’t ignore as they arrived for work this morning. A giant banner with a Sumatran tiger has been placed on the front pillars of the KFC headquarters reading: “KFC Stop Trashing My Home.” The building, nicknamed “the White House” because of its resemblance to the US Presidential residence, looks out on a lake where another team of activists deployed another banner to hundreds of Yum! Brand employees with a similar message.

KFC and Yum! have done the least of any of the top fast food companies to rid their supply chain of rainforest destruction, ignoring the evidence and dragging their feet for years as we and others have tried to get them to change their sourcing. If endangered animals like the Sumatran tiger are to survive in the wild, companies like KFC cannot continue to turn a blind eye to rainforest destruction.

But a revolt is in the air and we need thousands of people like you to join it.

We know KFC and YUM! can do better. Help tell the Colonel that his secret recipe for rainforest destruction is ‘no good’. Right now people across the world, are telling one of the world’s biggest fast food companies that responsible companies don’t turn rainforests into trash.

Join the revolt today and help change KFC’s secret recipe for destruction.

Oy Sanders, FRO.

Exactly what I would expect of KFC!!! :(

Go Greenpeace!!! :)

Need a petition to sign!

no offence but maybe KFC doesnt realise where the paper and card is coming from. instead of trying to close a good franchise down why not take down APP! there the ones to blame for the problem not KFC! you could take APP to court as there hurting the worlds rainforests, and with some logical thinking this could easly stop them and APP would be out of buisness. maybe the all the worlds takeaways and fast food stores use paper and card from trees in the rainforest but it does not mean there to blame its the people who supply them, im a buisness student still at school and from my eyes i think you need to take down the people supplying not the people buying!

I do love kfc its nice i
admit, But i always tell them to keep the brown bags in fast food
places as its true they only go straight in the bin and its a tropical
rainforrest theyre chopping down to produce the paper the rainforrest
provides habitat and most importantly the air you breath! rainforrest=
Lungs of the earth. Why cant kfc have a recycling bin just for the paper
with a thin slot so only paper can go in it, no food waist? I would use
it...just an idea

I think the packaging is likely to be the least of the problems with KFC - surely it would be better not to eat KFC at all? And while you're at it, why not go veggie or vegan? - healthier, less damaging to the environment, and it frees up a great deal of land and resources devoted to raising meat. Calling on KFC to clean up its packing is like asking for a freshly painted sign outside a concentration camp.

 

A "good franchise"? Are you kidding? They're awful! This new campaign brings to light their complicity with rainforest destruction, but there's also their abominable animal welfare standards, their complete disregard for rising levels of obesity, and the part they and other chains have played in cultivating demand for "fast" food - a business model based on getting everything bigger, faster, and cheaper to the detriment of animals, people, and the environment.

And taking down APP - I think that is the point. If they didn't have any clients, demand would cease :)

KFC is not real chicken!

Mr A D P; I dont want to out-right rant at you, as maybe you are genuinely ignorant. Massive Coorporate companies like KFC have been running long enough to know they have to take resonsibility, when it comes to any decisions about purchasing or anything else! Imagine if they were purchasing from a company that funded terrorism or sex trafficing, would it be ok for them to  say "oops, sorry, we didn't know!", I don't think so!! Come on ADP, really?  Also Greenpeace have been working to expose APP for YEARS now if you had looked at any any campaign relating to the Indonesian Rain Forest, the Barbie and Ken campaign, KitKat, Lego, the list goes on and on, you would know!! So whilst I don't blame you for your ignorance (we weren't born with infinate knowledge), I do urge you in future to have a little think before you make such bold statements and comment on companies/organisations you obviosly know nothing about.

Also seems as your approach to dealing the situation is as Greenpeace already practices, I really do urge you to follow their campaigns, support, and put your money where your big mouth is!

Bit harsh, Tamz!

No offence taken ADP at your defence of "good" KFC franchises, but Tamz has a point. Greeenpeace has been tackling both the supply side and demand side for years; demand side campaigning has brought great results with major buyers like Unilever and Nestle starting to put not just moral pressure but commercial pressure on APP, and some bits of APP (which is a giant corporation) have started to respond. It is like trying to get an oil tanker to change course. APP has such enormous clout with politicians and corruptible people in its source countries that supply side campaiging is unlikely ever to be enough. Sadly, historically, KFC and its parent Yum (!!!) have been among the slower to respond to the moral challenge. Contrast them to McDonalds who acted very quickly to join the moratorium on buying soya from illegally cleared Amazon rainforest. It maybe hard on honest franchise owners but we all have a moral responsibilty to look carefully at who we buy from and who we do business with. Anybudding entrepreneur needs to do due diligence before going into partnership with a franchisor.And a franchisee should be paying attention to where his/her supplies come from.

 

No one is trying to destroy the KFC brand. Just trying to stop rainforest destruction. KFC could source their lumber from renewable sources. Not from the Indonesian Jungle. 

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