Handmade Norfolk Soaps

Aromatherapy grade essential oils

Ruth Cartwright — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:18:08 +0100

Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils

At Handmade Norfolk Soaps, we're proud of the quality and purity of our soaps. The essential oils we use are are therapeutic-grade, selected for their purity and aroma-therapeutic benefits. The oils oils are 100% pure and we also use some absolutes. The rose absolute is amazing

Palm Photos and more Articles

Ruth Cartwright — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:10:38 +0100

Please look at our photos as there is more information about palm oil, production and destruction....

Sustainable Palm Oil?

Ruth Cartwright — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:37:09 +0100

Sustainable palm oil?

Extract from http://www.greenpeae.org.uk

"Industry efforts to bring this deforestation under control have come through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It was set up in 2001 to establish clear ethical and ecological standards for producing palm oil, and its members include high-street names like Unilever, Cadbury's, Nestlé and Tesco, as well as palm oil traders such as Cargill and ADM. Together, these companies represent 40 per cent of global palm oil trade.

But since then, forest destruction has continued. Many RSPO members are taking no steps to avoid the worst practices associated with the industry, such as large-scale forest clearance and taking land from local people without their consent. On top of this, the RSPO actually risks creating the illusion of sustainable palm oil, justifying the expansion of the palm oil industry.

Our investigations - detailed in our report Cooking The Climate - found evidence that RSPO members are still relying on palm oil suppliers who destroy rainforests and convert peatlands for their plantations. One member - Duta Palma, an Indonesian palm oil refiner - has rights to establish plantations on land which theoretically is protected by law.

There are ways to stop this. A moratorium on converting forest and peatland into oil palm plantations will provide breathing space to allow long-term solutions to be developed, while restoring deforested and degraded peatland provides a relatively cheap, cost effective way to make huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia. And governments around the world have to recognise the role deforestation plays in climate change, providing funds to help countries with tropical forests to protect their resources as well as reducing their own CO2 emissions."

Palm Oil

Ruth Cartwright — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:33:28 +0100

This Extract is from www.greenpeace.org.uk

"Demand for palm oil is growing and fast. At the moment, most of it ends up in hundreds of food products - from margarine and chocolate to cream cheese and oven chips - although it's also used in cosmetics and increasingly, for use in biodiesel. But the cost to the environment and the global climate is devastating - to feed this demand, tropical rainforests and peatlands in South East Asia are being torn up to provide land for oil palm plantations.

Our consumption of palm oil is rocketing: compared to levels in 2000, demand is predicted to more than double by 2030 and to triple by 2050. Over 70 per cent ends up in food, but the biofuels industry is expanding rapidly. Indonesia already has 6 million hectares of oil palm plantations, but has plans for another 4 million by 2015 dedicated to biofuel production alone."