Replacement for Earth Balance?

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I'm not really convinced that the palm oil Earth Balance uses is unethical, so if it really isn't ethical I would like to know about it.
 
Danielle said:
I went on their website and found this. Thoughts?
Q: I’ve heard talk about palm oil and sustainability. Where does Earth Balance source its palm oil?
A: 30% of our palm oil comes from Brazil, which is the source we use in all of our organic products. The remaining 70% is sourced from peninsular Malaysia where all of our suppliers are members of RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil), the leading global organization developing and implementing global standards for sustainable palm oil production. All palm oil sourced from these suppliers comes only from existing palm plantations, not new jungle-clearing projects. We insist on continuing assurances from our suppliers that all palm fruit oil purchased for Earth Balance complies with the RSPO policies and we would not hesitate to terminate suppliers that violate these policies. More info on RSPO is available at www.rspo.org.
Q: Is Earth Balance taking any other sustainable palm oil initiatives?
A: Earth Balance has purchased GreenPalm Certificates for 2012 production to fund the growth and expansion of sustainable palm, and it is our intention to do the same going forward. These certificates work like green energy credits and the money paid for the certificate goes directly to improving the infrastructure and practices behind sustainable palm. We believe the current global focus on making palm oil sustainable, through programs like GreenPalm, will inevitably create a supply chain that is exclusively sustainable, hopefully within the next five or so years.
Additionally, Earth Balance partners with Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), a non-governmental organization that is dedicated to the conservation of wild orangutans and their rainforest habitat. To learn more about OFI, visitwww.orangutan.org.
ETA: Seriously? No comments? :I No one is going to tell me if they still think it's unethical to use Earth Balance or not? I would really like to know.
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The RSPO (which Earth Balance goes by) has good intentions, but it sounds like they haven't really followed through on what they promised, making their certification worthless.

Friends of the Earth InternationalFOEI are extremely critical of the RSPO. Their website states[17]
"Essentially, RSPO companies are subjected to technical principles and criteria, but social and environmental issues of oil palm cultivation are largely framed within flawed political processes, poor governance and unsustainable market demand. Understood within this context, the RSPO is a voluntary certification process for a market premium and membership that may be able to add a much sought after and totally misleading 'green tag' to the industry. Moreover, it provides certification without having to actually address some of the most very basic, structural issues that gave rise to the adverse impacts of oil palm cultivation. Friends of the Earth International therefore does not regard the RSPO as a credible certification process as it is only a limited tool of technicality which is not able to adequately address the horrendous impacts of oil palm cultivation on forests, land and communities."
Greenpeace Greenpeace are occupying a difficult ground of being both a supporter and a critic of the RPSO. According to the Unilever website,[18]Executive Director of Greenpeace John Sauven is quoted as saying
"Unilever's decision could represent a defining moment for the palm oil industry. What we're seeing here is the world's largest buyer of palm oil using its financial muscle to sanction suppliers who are destroying rainforests and clearing peat lands. This has set a new standard for others to follow."
But, Greenpeace UK's website now states:[19]
"Industry efforts to bring this deforestation under control have come through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It was set up in 2004 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."
A recent investigation by Greenpeace [20] found worrying issues with one of Unilever's main palmoil suppliers, which Unilever recently accepted and announced they would stop using that supplier.[21] Unilever and Greenpeace also announced that they would work together to lobby for a moratorium on deforestation for palm oil.[22]
Unilever is currently purchasing Greenpalm certificates - and aims to purchase certificates for 30% of their total production in 2010 rising to 100% in 2015. Although Unilever uses more than a million tonnes of palm oil per year, this represents less than 5% of the total production of palm oil.
PT SMART, the Palm Oil supplier that was working with Unilever, apparently thinks that the Unilever contract is too small to be of any serious consequence. The cancelled contract apparently affected only 3% [23] of their total production. PT SMART is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.[24]
Rainforest Action Network The RAN also has a position of qualified support for the RSPO system. Recent blogs by David Gilbert,[25] a Research Fellow at RAN, who attended the 2009 RSPO annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, showed some of the intense dissatisfaction with the process.
"The RSPO is the world’s largest annual meeting of oil palm industry, environmentalists, human rights advocates, and, most importantly, community members. Today, I watched as a community member from Borneo stood up in front of oil palm producers, NGOs, and technocrats, identified himself as a victim of oil palm expansion, and tore apart the falsity that some of the world’s richest businessmen desperately want us to believe; the falsity that oil palm helps the world’s poor: Oil palm does not lead to the development of a country. Wealth, contained in the natural resources of the our forests and controlled by us,is flattened and burned, and then collected by the world’s rich, from Companies like Sinar Mas, Cargill, IOI, and Duta Palma. Oil palm does not bring wealth to the poor, it takes it away. Oil palm development, like so many neo-colonial trading systems, makes the poor poorer and the rich richer.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundtable_on_Sustainable_Palm_Oil
 
The problem is that, until such time as all palm oil is ethically produced, even if EB purchases only palm oil from existing plantations, it's increasing the overall demand for palm oil, which means that other companies will be buying from plantations grown on newly *cleared* land. There's really no way around it - by buying products with palm oil, you're contributing to the *clearing* of forests until such a time as overall demand for palm oil stabilizes or decreases.
 
I just got Trader Joe's organic virgin coconut oil. :D I hope this is the right stuff.
Haven't had the chance to give it a try yet.
 
I avoided Willow run because I thought it had trans fat! Apparently not!
I can get it at my NFS, and in sticks is cheaper than EB!
 
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I'm pleased to say that I have discovered 2 vegan spreads in my local hypermaket. They do not contain neither sat. fats or palm oil and one is made out of evo.:)
Moral of the story is that you really do have to check those labels even if buying food in health food stores.
 
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