Cooking Oil

Currently the only genetically engineered (GE) food crops commercially produced in Australia are cotton and canola. Both these can be labelled under 'vegetable oil' without any indication that they are GE. Processed food commonly contains GE ingredients, mainly through imported corn, soy and cottonseed oil.

GE crops pose a very real threat to our food because, as living organisms, they can reproduce and spread and so once released they cannot be recalled. Their effects are irreversible.

Concerns over genetically engineered food include unknown health risks, threats to biodiversity, contamination of conventional and organic crops, increase in pesticide and herbicide use, and control over our food by multinational chemical companies who legally own the patents on the technology.  [More]

Palm oil is found in roughly 50 per cent of all packaged products on supermarket shelves including shampoos, baking oil, chocolate, cosmetics, chips, cookies, margarine and soaps.

Unfortunately, not only does palm oil promote heart disease, but the vast plantations that grow oil palm trees have contributed to the destruction of the rainforest of South East Asia and threaten the survival of animals such as the Orangutan in Borneo, the Sumatran tiger, and Asian rhinoceros. Additionally, burning after deforestation accounts for significant greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, it has recently been deemed a potential saviour as a renewable resource for use as a biofuel.