Join the Social Media Day of Action to Rid Girl Scout Cookies of Forest-Destroying Palm Oil

This is a guest post from Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, both 16-year-old Girl Scouts from Michigan. Vorva and Tomtishen recently launched a campaign on Change.org urging Girl Scouts USA to eliminate rainforest-destroying palm oil from their cookies.

Girl Scout cookies may taste sweet, but one of their ingredients contributes to human rights abuses, destroys rainforest, and endangers thousands of species. In 2007, when we were 11 years old, we set out to earn a Girl Scout award by advocating for the endangered orangutan. Along the way, we discovered that the Girl Scout cookies we had sold since childhood contained palm oil, an ingredient that contributes to the above social and environmental concerns.

More than 60,000 of you have signed our Change.org petition urging the Girl Scouts to eliminate rainforest-destroying palm oil from their cookies. Now we’re asking for your help again.

February 22nd is World Thinking Day, which is celebrated annually by Girl Scouts worldwide. This year’s theme is “we can save the planet.” We’re asking supporters to participate in our social media day of action and demand that Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) ditch unsustainable palm oil. Here’s how you can get involved:

1) Go to the Girl Scouts USA Facebook page and paste a comment (note: you can’t post new messages on Girl Scouts’ Facebook wall, but you can leave a comment on existing messages). Here’s a sample you can use, or you can post your own message—the more personal the story, the better: On World Thinking Day, I’m thinking about changing the world by making Girl Scout cookies rainforest-safe.   The palm oil in your cookies destroys rainforest and endangers animals like orangutans – but it doesn’t have to!  Deforestation-free sources exist. Please use rainforest-safe palm oil http://www.change.org/petitions/girl-scouts-make-your-cookies-rainforest-safe

2) Tweet at the Girl Scouts. Here’s a message you can use, or you can craft your own: It's #WorldThinkingDay, and I think @girlscouts should use rainforest-safe palm oil  http://chn.ge/zyzphT#forestfriendlycookies

More than 30,000 square miles of rainforests have been cleared or burned in Southeast Asia to make way for palm oil plantations. As a result of this destruction, species like Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants, rare jungle birds, and our beloved orangutans have been pushed to the brink of extinction. Meanwhile, the clearing and burning of these forests and the carbon-rich peatland under them have made Indonesia the number three emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, behind China and the United States.

This is not just an environmental crisis, human rights abuses are occuring as a result of palm oil production as well.

After making the connection between Girl Scout cookies and these grave environmental and social issues, we set out to convince our organization to align their products with the Girl Scout Law, which outlines goals to “use resources wisely” and “make the world a better place”. We hope to see GSUSA make their cookies deforestation-free and rainforest-safe.

After years of campaigning, we finally had the opportunity to meet with GSUSA last spring. This past fall, the organization announced its new palm oil policy. It’s a step in the right direction, but it does not ensure that their cookies are truly rainforest-safe.

Let’s show GSUSA that on World Thinking Day, you’re hoping that they align their products with their values by removing rainforest-destroying palm oil from their cookies! Thank you for taking part in our social media day of action, and if you haven’t already signed our petition, you can do so here.

Photo  credit: Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen