In my 17th May 09 article 'De Clutter' I spoke of my new mythtv box. Boy I am loving it. With its EPG it has helped me not watch more TV but be a lot more selective of the TV I am watching. This has effectively de clutted my TV watching experience.

Now It has also been working well for the girlfriend. I now have a steady stream of programs for her watch why I am pre occupied (like when I am building Mythtv Boxes.) One thing that my girl friend loves is monkeys and apes. So these two titles have been added to the program finder and automatically recorded. We have had an almost continues supply of primate specials featuring everything from eastern low land gorillas to chimpanzees. But the animal that inspired this article is the orangutan.


"Right Turn Clyde"

My first memories of orangutans was of Clyde, the hard drinking, hard partying, shit on command orangutan from the 'Every which way' films. He was remarkable in his roll with his almost human quality range of emotion and comical timing.

Unfortunately our close relative the orangutan is now under threat, and remarkably its not due to our insatiable need for pretty hardwood floors and bleached toilet paper. But due to our sweet tooth.

Currently the biggest threat to orangutan habitat is palm tree plantations. These plantations have been spreading at a remarkable rate and their product, palm tree oil is used in all maner of food products. While watching the latest episode of the excellent new BBC documentary series 'Orangutan Diary' my girlfriend stated that she from now on would boycott any foods that contain palm tree oil. My reply to her was "how do you know which ones contain palm tree oil?"

My girlfriend was under the assumption that palm tree oil would be listed on the ingredients listing on the side of the food packaging. But, unfortunately I was correct when i stated that it would be listed just under vegetable oil.

Not to long a go my girlfriend sent me the following link to the Palm Oil Action Group shopping guide. I had no idea that so many items were made with the oil. Decisions become a lot harder when tim tams are involved.



But I just cant look at these poor little buggers and be hungry. In the next few weeks I will be looking for items that we can substitute for any thing with palm tree oil and post them here on the blog.