Teens Fight to Stop Girl Scout Cookies From Killing Orangutans
Used to be, the only question of any consequence during Girl Scouts Cookie season was Thin Mints or Somoas?
But the five-year quest of Michigan teenagers Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen has replaced that lighthearted, tasty choice with one that is considerably more serious: life or death for Sumatran orangutans?
In 2007, when the girls were mere seventh-graders, they decided to study the great ape to earn their Girl Scout Bronze Award. That endeavor led to a disheartening discovery: On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, loggers were clear-cutting forests to make room for palm oil plantations, an illegal act that was decimating the island’s indigenous orangutans.
It is very easy to feel like you are the only person who cares, but you will be surprised to realize that you are not the only one. You can really, really achieve your goals if you are creative.
Over the last ten years, expanding palm oil plantations have been responsible for nearly 80 percent of the deforestation in Sumatra. This habitat loss has eviscerated the native orangutan population, which has plummeted from 85,000 in 1900 to less than 6,500 today.
Saddened and stunned to learn that all 16 varieties of Girl Scout cookies contain palm oil, the dynamic duo rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
They founded Project O.R.A.N.G.S (Orangutans Really Appreciate And Need Girl Scouts). They hosted local meetings for concerned citizens. They wrote letters to the CEO of Girl Scouts USA (GSUA) and First Lady Michelle Obama, the honorary President of GSUA. They partnered with Rainforest Action Network and the Union of Concerned Scientist to circulate a petition signed by 70,000 people.
Last September, the dogged determination finally paid off—sort of. For the 2012-2013 cookie season, each box of Girl Scout cookies will include a GreenPalm logo, says GSUA. The organization will also start buying GreenPalm certificates, which offer a better price to producers that use sustainable practices. And it wants its bakers to transition to a segregated, certified sustainable palm oil source by 2015.
The girls’ efforts caught the eye of none other than the United Nations, who nominated the teenagers this past December for the first-ever International Forest Heroes Award. On the eve of the winners’ announcement, TakePart caught up with Madison and Rhiannon for a wide-ranging chat.
TakePart: In September 2011, the Girl Scouts made two announcements: One that they would start buying GreenPalm certificates; and two, that it had directed its bakers to use as little palm oil as possible going forward. You've gone on record as saying this is a nice first step, but it is clearly not enough to save orangutans. Tell me why GreenPalm certificates aren’t enough.
Rhiannon: Here’s how they work. You purchase a certificate per ton of palm oil, so you calculate your palm oil usage and then you buy the corresponding number of certificates to offset your use of unsustainable palm oil. What these certificates do is they provide incentives to people who are in India, Asia, and Malaysia—the growers. The goal of this program is to show these people that they can make a little bit more by converting to sustainable practices. But the problem is that it doesn’t really change what is going inside of the Girl Scout cookies. They are using the same palm oil, they are contributing to these same issues, but they are just throwing a little bit of money at the problem and hoping that it will go away.
TakePart: Tell our readers about the new campaign you launched earlier this month.
Madison: We launched a new petition on change.org because the Girl Scouts were quoted in The Huffington Post as saying, “We only enact this palm oil policy because it was the right thing to do, not because our consumers showed their concern.” So even though 70,000 people sent these emails, that wasn’t enough concern. So we launched this new consumer care campaign, and this petition is the first phase of this campaign. We just want to prove to them that it’s not just Rhiannon and me—that there are consumers who have learned about this issue and want to see a change in their cookies.
TakePart: Are you still active in Girl Scouts?
Rhiannon: Yes, we are both still members. This is our tenth year now. We decided to stick with the organization as we’ve continued this project because we really admire the values that they represent and their mission statement: to create female leaders in the world. The Girl Scouting program goes through the end of high school. We are juniors right now, so next spring, when we graduate from high school, we will sort of graduate out of the Girl Scouts.
TakePart: Do you still sell the cookies? When was the last time either of you ate a Girl Scout cookie?
Rhiannon: We stopped selling the cookies when we figured out about this issue. So I think it was the 2008 cookie season, when we were in seventh grade. And that was really just more of a personal decision. We haven’t advocated for any sort of boycott of Girl Scout cookies because they are such an important fundraiser. They do a lot for the girls and the organization.
Also, when I stopped selling the cookies, I also stopped eating them. So I haven’t had a Girl Scout cookie since 2008, which has been hard because they are on sale every year, and they are delicious.
Orangutan heroines Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen. (Photo: Courtesy of Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen)TakePart: What would you say to other kids with big dreams about changing the world who are worried about their goals being too big?
Madison: This is one of my favorite questions. When Rhiannon and I started out, we began with one simple belief, and we had passion and conviction, and I feel like so many young people don’t realize the power they have to make a change. We didn’t start out with this grand dream; we started out with connecting to an issue we saw with an organization we had been a part of for a very long time.
At the very beginning, I thought it was going to be easy. I thought, you know, part of the Girl Scout mission statement is to “make the world a better place, use resources wisely.” So I thought this would be an easy change. And it wasn’t.
And we grew up and we learned through experience how to be a successful advocate. There were so many times that we could have quit because it seemed like this huge, overwhelmingly impossible goal. But I think little steps and having passion—simply refusing to give up—and working with other young people can make a serious, serious difference.
It is very easy to feel like you are the only person who cares, but you will be surprised to realize that you are not the only one. You can really, really achieve your goals if you are creative.
TakePart: I understand you met Jane Goodall. What was that like?
Rhiannon: I met Dr. Jane Goodall for the first and only time in Chicago in the spring of 2008. We were there for the Roots and Shoots event, so it was really inspiring. Roots & Shoots is her organization for young people, and we’ve been members of that since middle school.
This woman is so selfless; she’s so incredible. She’s dedicated her whole life to protecting the species but also just showing youth that they have the power to change the world. And so hearing her speak was so inspiring. After that lecture, we had the opportunity to present our project to the room. She went around and met all the different groups. We got her to sign our petition then. We also designed these Save the Orangutans, donate palm oil wristbands, and we gave one to her, which she wore for the entire night. It was just so incredible because she is really our hero. And I think that was sort of like a turning point in our project, when we wanted to keep going but we weren’t sure where to go—where we could really make the change. And I think she sort of helped us realize that this was possible.
TakePart: Where do you think your campaign will be in five years?
Madison: If we took all of the palm oil out of projects in the United States that would hardly make a dent, because the two largest importers of palm oil are China and India. So our plan is to target Cargill, who actually sources the palm oil in Girl Scout cookies as well as palm oil imports worldwide. They are one of the largest, privately owned companies, and they don’t have a strong enough sustainability policy. So we will pressure them to put safeguards in their policies to ensure their palm oil is deforestation-free and socially responsible. We’ve impacted the entire global market. So that’s our larger goal, making the biggest impact that we possibly can.
TakePart: What would it mean to win a United Nations award?
Rhiannon: That would be so incredible. We’ve already been honored by being included on that short list of people who are doing this incredible work all over the world. It would show the world that youth do have power, they do have a voice, and you know, just because you are 16 or 26 or 36, it doesn’t matter how old you are. You can be an advocate, and you can speak up for a cause that you are passionate about and create change.
