Girl Scout Cookie Season Brings Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Orangutan Extinction

Before you eat another Thin Mint or Tagalong, chew on this: Girl Scout cookies are contributing to the destruction of rainforests, the displacement of indigenous people, and the demise of orangutans, Sumatran tigers and other endangered wildlife. But two 15-year-old scouts from Michigan are trying to change that.

A few years ago, Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen began researching endangered orangutans for a Girl Scouts project. It doesn't take long, when looking into the plight of the red apes, to discover that the greatest threat to their survival is the habitat loss caused by palm oil production. Losing their home is bad enough, but it also leads to deadly human-orangutan conflicts; plantation managers have been known to put a bounty on orangutans worth a day's wages or more to their workers.

When Madison and Rhiannon realized that Girl Scout cookies were among the long list of products containing the inhumane ingredient, they took a stand. "We've seen pictures of orangutans set afire and beaten. You really just want to reach out and do all that you can to help save them," Madison told the Ann Arbor News. So, they stopped selling cookies. And that was just the first step.

The boycott is a big deal; the cookies are responsible for a big chunk of Girl Scouts funding. There's not only pressure from within the organization, but also from people who would rather not listen to a couple of kids, like Seattle Times columnist Ron Judd, who wrote: "That's sweet. But listen you little do-gooders: These are decisions best left to adults." Obviously not.

Madison and Rhiannon weren't deterred. While Samoa-addicted adults hoped they'd just go away, the girls kept working to bring the dark side of the cookies to light. They convinced the Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Biological Diversity, Cultural Survival, Orangutan Foundation International and Rainforest Action Network to join their cause.

These girls are the embodiment of the Girl Scouts mission to build "girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." But instead of becoming poster children for the organization, Girl Scouts USA is giving their campaign the run-around.

Girl Scouts USA has tried to greenwash their cookies with claims that getting palm oil from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is somehow better for orangutans than a boycott ... even though the RSPO doesn't actually require its members to purchase so-called sustainable palm oil. More to the point: Many organizations argue that there's no such thing as sustainable palm oil.

The same concerns apply to the recent announcement by Kellogg's, one of the makers of Girl Scout cookies, that they're going to purchase certificates for their palm oil, supposedly to support this "sustainable" palm oil production. While this move shows that the company is paying attention (sort of) to the campaign, Madison and Rhiannon aren't fooled.

The Girl Guides in the U.K. has eliminated palm oil from their cookies and have offered to help Girl Scouts USA and Girl Guides Canada make the switch. (Removing the palm oil could also help another problem plaguing the cookies: hidden trans fat.)

Bottom line: There's no excuse for a do-gooding organization like the Girl Scouts to support a product responsible for so much devastation. Help get orangutan extinction off the Girl Scout cookies ingredient list.

For the latest updates from Madison and Rhiannon, you can also keep up with Project ORANGS (Orangutans Really Need and Appreciate Girls Scouts) on Facebook.

Photo credit: Jamiesrabbits