Selling Girl Scout Cookies is usually one of the largest fundraisers for Troop 12026 in Jersey City, NJ, and earns about $ 1,000 annually for stickers, membership fees and the cost of an annual Halloween party for their community. to offer. But this year, the girls – 21 in all, aged 10 to 15 – will kick off the cake season in protest over the inclusion of palm oil in the ingredients of the popular delicacies.
The boycott comes after troop leader Gina Verdibello, who has been serving in the troop since 2013 and has two daughters in the troop, came across a local news article about a petition filed by a girl scout in rural Tennessee named Olivia Chaffin was started and the organization requested to switch completely. sustainable palm oil and the promise to boycott cookie sales until a change is made. The petition in which Chaffin calls for the deforestation of palm oil production currently has more than 23,000 signatures. (Chaffin and her parents did not respond to Yahoo Life’s request for comment.)
Her curiosity aroused, Verdibello dug a little more into the controversy surrounding palm oil. In addition to the environmental aspects, an Associated Press report, published late last month, found that palm oil production is dependent on child labor in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supplies 85 percent of the oil supply. According to the AP, ‘an estimated tens of thousands of children’ – some smuggled across borders and others working with their parents – work in dangerous conditions for little or no pay while being exposed to toxic chemicals, missing educational opportunities and navigating. risks such as trafficking, police detention and abuse.
Based on U.S. customs records and other data, the AP was able to trace the child labor to palm oil used in products released by food brands, including Ferrero – one of two companies to make Girl Scout cookies – as well as Nestlé, Unilever, Kellogg’s , PepsiCo. Palm oil is also widely used in beauty and household products, from shampoos to soaps to lipsticks.
Verdibello – who, like Chaffin, was concerned about the fact that Girl Scout cookies contain ‘mixed sustainable palm oil’ among the ingredients, meaning that it is not obtained sustainably at all, was moved to take a stand.
‘[The AP article] was very powerful, and I showed it to the girls because I wanted them to make the decision whether or not they wanted to sell cookies, and they all agreed, “said Verdibello, who is on the Jersey City Board of Education. “As much as they love the cookies, and they like to sell, they did not feel good until the Girl Scouts solved the problem.”
The troupe is not just talking about selling cookies, which are going on in many parts of the country, with Thin Mints and Trefoils now available to buy online as a safe solution in the midst of the pandemic. They also talk about why they are not participating, and do their part to raise awareness.
Verdibello says that she told the girls: ‘If we are going to do this, we will have to do everything we can. It’s not just that we do not sell cookies, it’s a big thing. ‘
A press release issued by the troop reads: ‘The members of Girl Scout Troop 12026 are deeply upset about the information discovered by Olivia’s troop. As a result of this information, the members of Girl Scout Troop 12026 cannot in good conscience sell cookies that are knowingly produced by children who are not free to go to school and forced to work for a living in dangerous and toxic circumstances. at the same time the production of a product which, if done irresponsibly, causes deforestation, resulting in the destruction of the world’s rainforests. ‘
‘Children do not have to work in these appalling conditions just for a few Girl Scout cookies,’ quotes one member of the troop, while another says, ‘For a company that shows that it wants to educate girls, are you sure the girls are growing up in the countries where you use child labor. ”
Verdibello says she has had ‘positive feedback’ from her community, with supporters offering financial donations to compensate for the lack of fundraising. However, the responses from the Girl Scouts organization were lower. Her local wing in New Jersey tried to suggest some sort of compromise, such as raising awareness about palm oil without a boycott, while the national Girl Scouts of America gave a more “vague response.”
Verdibello says national leaders have told her that they want to make their palm oil more sustainable, while at the same time underestimating the importance of the oil used to preserve the cookies, and insisting that it is a small trace of mixed oil that , even if removed, would not have a major impact on the larger palm oil industry.
“It simply came to our notice then. It is still there, ”she says.
Her next step was to get the girls in her gang to start a letter campaign to reach out to the bakers. [of the cookies], to politicians, whoever wants to listen. She is also in touch with Chaffin and has heard from other parents and troop leaders who were also motivated to interrupt cookie sales.
However, Verdibello says she is aware that this is a problem that may not be resolved by next year’s cookie season – which could lead to long-term fundraising.
“People were very generous, so I think we’ll be fine with the money we need this year,” she says. ‘But if I think ahead, I do not know if we will be able to sell cookies next year as well. This is a big problem that I do not know if we can fix overnight. It needs great advocacy work. ”
The use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies is indeed a controversy dating back more than a decade. A petition that has since been closed was launched by former Girl Scouts Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva – who first learned about the deforestation associated with palm plantations and the threat posed by orang-utans while studying the primates for a Girl Scout project – garnered nearly 70,000 signatures. Their five-year campaign has finally promised to include a GreenPalm logo on cookies, starting with the 2012-13 baking season, as a symbol of the Girl Scouts’ efforts to raise awareness about the environmental issues associated with the production of palm oil. In addition to supporting the use of sustainable palm oil, Girl Scouts leadership said they will ask bakers to limit the use of palm oil, which will henceforth only be added to recipes if there is no alternative.
Yahoo Life has not received any comments from the Girl Scouts yet. On December 30, a day after the AP article was published, the organization responded to Twitter critics and called on its bakers and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to ‘take action’ against suppliers’ without to follow ethical procedures’.
“Child labor has no place in Girl Scout cookie production,” a tweet said in response to a mother who said her daughter would be among those not participating in the cookie season.
Child labor has no place in Girl Scout Cookie production. If certain suppliers do not follow ethical procedures, we expect our bakers and RSPO to act quickly to correct these exceptions so that we can continue to be a proponent of best practices around the world.
– Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) 30 December 2020
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