French Ecology Minister To Public: 'Stop Eating Nutella'

Ségolène Royal — the French Minister of Ecology who recently announced the ban of Roundup, Monsanto's popular but controversial herbicide, for use in home gardens — has now urged citizens to stop buying products that require palm oil.

"We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming," Royal said in an interview with the French television channel Canal+.

"We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it's made with palm oil," she went on to say. The production of palm oil has been connected to global warming because the process releases of tremendous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, and may also lead to the extinction of forest-dwelling species like Sumatran elephants, tigers, and orangutans.

Previously, French senators have tried to dissuade support of the palm oil industry, proposing a 300 percent tax on palm oil on the grounds that it is fattening and bad for the environment. The measure failed to pass.

Although Ferrero, which produces Nutella, did not respond directly to Royal's interview, the company announced later this week that it was aware of the environmental states of palm oil production, and had made commitments to source palm oil in a more sustainable manner, according to the Agence France-Presse.