I kind of feel if we aren’t careful now we might not have that great of forests when I’m an adult. We need to start looking at things differently. I have family that lives in Europe and other different countries. Those countries seem to be head of us in preserving forests, recycling, not using plastic bag at grocery stores, etc. We are a huge country and it’s time to start protecting it.
Cole Rasenberger, Age 10, Interview with Mongabay
This is grassroots activism and leadership at its finest. When Cole Rasenberger was 8, he discovered the pulp-and-paper companies were harvesting old growth coastal forests in his state to expand tree plantations. He also discovered that these destructive practices were being fueled in part by growing demand for paper from fast food companies. As part of a class project, he got every kid in his school to sign post cards asking McDonalds to use post-consumer recycled paper products for their packaging.
"I asked my principal and teacher if I could get my whole school to sign my postcards. I told them I am only one voice; if we get my school to sign it would be thousands of voices. I think that would be better than just me," Cole says, telling mongabay.com how he was able to get his whole school to join in his activism. "McDonalds is always doing things for kids, so I thought it would be a great place to start. I drew handmade postcards of animal habitats. I asked McDonald to be the environmental leader for my generation and please increase your use of post consumer recycled fiber."
Not long after receiving the postcards, McDonalds announced it would soon be switching their bags to 100 percent recycled paper.
Cole was honored as one of the 2010 winners of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for his efforts to persuade McDonalds to use recycled paper packaging. Now he is taking on KFC.
This time Cole and his friends got 6,000 postcards signed. Then Cole, his sister, Kaela, and two friends, Nik and Liam, flew to KFC headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky to deliver the letters in person. Two KFC executives met with the children; they did not commit to changing their paper sourcing policies, but gave the kids $5 gift cards for KFC.
To fully appreciate the importance of Cole's activism, here is a happy meal version of the major issues.
Cole is trying to protect the rapidly disappearing Middle Atlantic coastal forests which contain the most biologically diverse freshwater wetland ecosystems in North America. These forested wetlands include swamps, peat bogs, and marshy floodplains of major river systems and are home to diverse species of trees, shrubs, waterfowl, migratory birds, and aquatic life. Here are the last remaining stands of Middle Atlantic coastal forest that once stretched across the eastern sections of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia:
Savannah River bottomlands - southern South Carolina/Georgia border
C.E. basin - southern South Carolina
Francis Marion National Forest - eastern South Carolina
Winyah Bay - eastern South Carolina
Lake Waccamaw and River - southeastern North Carolina, northeastern South Carolina
Brunswick County Pinelands - southeastern North Carolina
Bladen Lakes - southern North Carolina
Holly Shelter Gamelands - southeastern North Carolina
Camp Lejeune - southeastern North Carolina
Croatan National Forest - eastern North Carolina
Outer Banks - coastal North Carolina
Pamlimarle Peninsula - eastern North Carolina
Roanoke River - eastern North Carolina
North and Northwest River - northeastern Carolina
Great Dismal Swamp - Virginia/North Carolina border
Assatague and Chincoteague - Maryland/Virginia Atlantic coast
Virginia coast reserve - Virginia
Cape Romain - South Carolina coast
Fort Bragg - southeastern North Carolina
Sandhills Gameland - southeastern North Carolina
Sandhill NWR - northern South Carolina
Fort Jackson - central South Carolina
Fort Stewart - eastern Georgia
International Paper is the largest pulp-and-paper company in the United States and they own land that includes some of the remaining coastal forests in the southeast. To increase paper production, the company has begun to drain and ditch these wetlands, clearcut the native trees, and plant stands of pine to harvest for paper fiber on 15 to 20 year cycles. Thanks to management practices that include heavy use of herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers, these plantations are sterile environments with toxic runoff into the watersheds in the region. Thanks to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), International Paper gets to claim they practice sustainable forestry. You can see those sustainable practices in action in North Carolina coastal forest wetlands here.
The SFI was created by the American Forest and Paper Association in 1994, supposedly to aid the industry in moving toward sustainable practices. Of all the forestry certification systems, SFI is the least rigorous and relies on self-reported adherence to practice guidelines. As noted by the Washington Forest Law Center:
SFI is funded virtually exclusively by the timber and paper companies it certifies and its board of directors, governance, and standards-setting process is heavily weighted in favor of industrial interests.
SFI certification is worth a great deal to forest product companies like International Paper. It allows them to market their products as "green." It allows their corporate customers to claim to be "green" in packaging and product lines. In case you have not already guessed, the company producing the "sustainable" paper fiber for KFC is International Paper. KFC uses the International Paper's SFI certification to claim that the paper packaging for their fast food is environmentally responsible. Using processed paper fiber instead of recycled paper for their packaging is far from responsible, especially since very little of the waste paper stream from KFC's packaging will ever be recycled.
There are a few things you can do to help Cole as he takes on KFC:
1. Learn more about the Dogwood Alliance's efforts to persuade KFC to use recycled paper products in their packaging.
2. Participate in the Dogwood Alliance's Kentucky Fried Forests campaign by sending a message to Roger Eaton, CEO of KFC. Tell him Cole Rasenberger sent you.
3. Send a copy of Cole's YouTube video to your social network. Great activism deserves a good following.