Q:girl scout cookie articles

Anonymous

The main controversy over Girl Scout cookies is that they’re made with palm oil. In order to make palm oil, large companies destroy rain forests, hurt local communities and release carbon dioxide into the air, which contributes to climate change.

For more details on this, read the Rainforest Action Network’s Problem with Palm Oil Factsheet.

Back in 2006, girl scouts Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva started Project ORANGS with the goal to “to unite Girl Scout Community members and consumers to remove palm oil, an ingredient that harms the rainforest, from Girl Scout Cookies.”

Five years later, in late 2011, Girl Scouts USA finally took action, sort of. They will add a GreenPalm logo to their boxes and buy certificates from the program.

As reported in the Huffington Post, the Rainforest Action Network is not all that impressed:

Responding to the Girl Scouts USA announcement, Lindsey Allen, forest campaign director at the Rainforest Action Network, said in a press release, “The production of palm oil is causing some of the world’s most precious rainforests to disappear faster than a box of Thin Mints.” And she added, “Unfortunately, nothing in today’s statement ensures that palm oil connected to rainforest destruction will no longer be found in Girl Scout cookies.”

Rhiannon and Madison also said it was “not quite what they would have liked” and explained that “GreenPalm is a move forward and provides incentives for the use of sustainable plantations, but it doesn’t actually mean the palm oil is coming from one of these sustainable plantations.”

To learn more about Project ORANGS visit http://projectorangs.org/. For the Girl Scouts USA’s explanation about palm oil in their cookies, visit http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/cookie_faqs.asp#tropical_oils.