Dunedin sisters Clare and Judith Curran are setting up a presentation for Parliament on New Zealand's use of palm products.
Dunedin South Labour member of Parliament Clare Curran told the Otago Daily Times last night the presentation was planned for the middle of next month.
It coincides with growing concern that products using palm oil or palm kernel may be causing the deforestation of jungle in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Ms Curran said the issue was whether such products came from "a verifiable sustainable source".
The presentation was designed to find out who in Parliament was interested in the issue, and it did not seek to put pressure on anyone.
Invitations would be sent this week.
"It's just something I've got an interest in," Ms Curran said.
"I know that a number of other members of the Labour caucus are interested, and I know that there are members of the Green caucus that are interested, and I'm hoping that members in other caucuses will be, too."
Judith Curran, who was part of the recent, successful protest against Cadbury's use of palm oil in dairy milk chocolate, will be making part of the presentation along with a member of Greenpeace.
The Green Party yesterday called on the Government and Fonterra to reduce the importation of palm kernel for use as feed for dairy cows throughout the country, including Otago and Southland.
Party co-leader Russel Norman said palm kernel imports went from 0.4 tonnes in 1999 to 1.1 million tonnes in 2008.
Dr Norman said this was a quarter of all global palm kernel production, which threatened not only the local grain industry, but New Zealand's environmental reputation.
He believed the Government and Fonterra had to do something to stop the "addiction" to the cheap but unsustainable palm kernel.
Greenpeace NZ climate campaigner Simon Boxer claimed Wilmar International, the company supplying kernel to New Zealand, was the world's largest trader of palm oils and kernel and had a bad reputation for rainforest destruction.
But Fonterra sustainability manager John Hutchings told Radio New Zealand Wilmar International was a reputable company and palm kernel was an important feed supplement.
