Kellog, the company that produces Girl Scout cookies, recently announced that it will only use deforestation-free palm oil. The credit for this movement goes to the campaign of two teenage Girl Scouts who challenged the organization’s use of unsustainably-sourced palm oil, which was used in Girl Scout Cookies. Under the commitment, Kellogg’s suppliers will have to meet specific sourcing criteria by the end of 2015.
Palm oil, which is an ingredient in multiple prepackaged food items like cookies and crackers and several cosmetic items, is one of the largest drivers of deforestation in Southeast Asia and essential to the habitat for critically endangered species, especially Sumatran orangutans and tigers.
The announcement comes after Girl Scouts, Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, began a movement to force Kellogg to find more sustainable sources, creating a petition, letter-writing drive and contacted Girl Scouts across the nation to speak out, too. By highlighting deforestation and threats to endangered species like orangutans from oil palm plantations, Tomtishen and Vorva started a movement that eventually forced Girl Scouts USA to commit to sourcing palm oil from less damaging sources.
But how did this campaign begin? At only 15 and 16, the girls began project ORANG (Orangutans Really Appreciate and Need Girls Scouts) in 2007 to earn their award. Since their project towards changing the palm oil used in Girl Scout cookies, they have partnered with Rainforest Action Network, co-authoring a petition that has generated more than 70,000 emails to the Girl Scouts headquarters. With girls like this coming up in the world, we can trust the earth is in good hands.