Dear Prime Minister, I am writing to you with an appeal for you to intervene in the Fonterra palm kernel animal feed issue that has been covered in the media over the last few days. I am appalled that such an important New Zealand company such as Fonterra that tells the world our cows are pasture fed is directly implicated in rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia by allowing its dairy cows to be fed palm kernel expeller. Palm Oil companies have said that palm kernel animal feed is an important economic product that is valuable to their businesses and is not merely a waste product as wrongly claimed by Fonterra. Plus claiming it's a by-product doesn't absolve Fonterra's economic support of an industry that is driving rainforest destruction. The actions of Fonterra are a threat to New Zealand's Clean and Green international reputation and could have a devastating impact on all sectors of our economy, including tourism, if consumers around the world become outraged at New Zealand's role in rainforest destruction. Wilmar International, the company Fonterra's has a joint venture with to import palm kernel expeller, has been accused of destroying rainforest and peatland, illegally burning to clear land, stealing land from indigenous people, triggering social conflicts and repressive actions from security companies and failing to carry out environmental impact assessments. Auditors for the World Bank assessed these claims and found that loans were given to Wilmar without environmental and social assessments or assessments of supply chains, in breach of its own standards. Why does the New Zealand Government allow Fonterra to make these decisions without any thought to the wider risk to New Zealand's international reputation? As Cadbury's recent decision shows, international consumer opinion is firmly against using products from the international palm industry due to the rainforest destruction in South Asia and its resulting massive greenhouse gas emissions. You are our country's leader and tourism minister. You know how important New Zealand's environmental reputation is. Please act decisively to make Fonterra stop palm kernel expeller from being fed to New Zealand dairy cows. Yours sincerely,