Girl Scout Cookies Controversy: A Family Dinner Table Talk

This week's Family Dinner Table Talk, from HuffPost and The Family Dinner book:

Girl Scout cookies have been much loved for years, but it sounds like the recipe might need an upgrade. Two troop members and high school sophomores, Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, have petitioned the parent organization to stop using palm oil in Girl Scout cookies, or use palm oil that is sustainably sourced.

The Girl Scouts organization has defended the use of palm oil, and claim that the taste would be altered if another ingredient was used. Well, not everyone is buying the Girl Scouts' stance, including the granddaughter of the founder of the Girl Scouts. She says that her grandmother "would oppose the use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies -- a degradation of the product, by the way, as they originally called for butter -- because the cultivation and export of palm oil is destroying rainforests in Southeast Asia and the lives of girls in those countries." As of this writing, palm oil remains in Girl Scout cookies.

Do you think that the Girl Scouts should stop using palm oil in their cookies? Would you buy them knowing they contain an ingredient that contributes to destroying rainforests? Do you think this campaign is an effective method of persuasion on the palm oil issue? How should one persuade others to join a cause? What are the instances in which palm oil use is okay? How does this cookie controversy affect the Girl Scouts organization overall?

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Comments

[StJon]

08:46 PM on 06/03/2011

You know I think they should go back to butter and use real sugar. I want the full, flavorful effect of what was called for. I'm a purist. If I'm going to eat a whole box, I want to know I'm getting the good stuff.

[Bob Moller]

12:01 PM on 05/29/2011

Again the misinformed due to mainstream medias failure to properly reseach the whole truth.
Read and be educated: http://www.naturalnews.com/028941_tocotrienols_palm_fruit_oil.html

[hald]

01:35 AM on 05/28/2011

A palm oil controversy? Come on! I have always liked girl scout cookies. But they aren't really cookies. They really are candy. Look at the calorie counts on the packages. Then compare them to various candy and you will find you are consuming fewer calories eating a chocolate bar or nearly any other candy bar. Get real. They are luscious. But they are candy, not cookies. Their classification as cookies ought to be the controversy.

[Bowfarmer]

09:51 PM on 05/27/2011

I think the girl scouts should bake the cookies themselves and sell homemade cookies instead of cookies made in a factory.

[MrsGreebers]

07:10 PM on 05/31/2011

No legal issues there...

[graphikjunkie]

08:52 PM on 05/27/2011

Not just palm oil, but hydrogenated - which is a trans-fat that clogs your arteries (despite the fact that the FDA try to cover it up). They may as well be selling cigarrettes.

[YoBear]

10:35 PM on 05/27/2011

Good point. I always look at the ingredient list for the hydrogenated oil. Which is why I avoid girl scout cookies. And I bet the cookies would taste even better w/o it.

[Dialectic Solipsist]

05:08 PM on 05/27/2011

As a former boy scout, I recall being immensely frustrated peddling our crummy popcorn door-to-door whereas girl scouts had the luxury of selling a product that required little salesmanship. Even drug dealers fold their arms in contempt that their product doesn't sell itself to the extent that these cookies do.

[mad lib]

03:41 PM on 05/27/2011

While they're at it, no more high fructose corn syrup.

I had to give up 2 bucks because I felt bad about lecturing this poor dad. But c'mon.

[TucsonEd]

03:19 PM on 05/27/2011

I'd rather they just asked for donations.
I stopped buying them too when they changed suppliers. The new cookies aren't very good.

[logan9]

03:04 PM on 05/27/2011

Aren't Girl Scout cookies also full of partially hydrogenated oils (aka Trans Fats) as well? Pretty sure many of them are! It seems that should also be changed!!

[gizmoturner]

02:15 PM on 05/27/2011

Girl Scout cookies are now dried-out, over-priced, tasteless cr**p. Stopped buying them a while ago. Donate to the troop selling them instead. The troop doesn't make much off the price of the cookies anyway.

[VeryGrood]

02:50 PM on 05/27/2011

But then how will they get their "guilt trip" (read: cookie selling) badge?!

[littlewitch]

05:46 PM on 05/27/2011

The mint cookies are still divine.

[GOATLEY3]

01:57 PM on 05/27/2011

"She says that her grandmother "would oppose the use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies "

Right because if you ressurect people who lived 100 years ago they start thinking like crazed hippies and forget the entire perspective in which they grew up.

[sunshine saguaro]

02:28 PM on 05/27/2011

Oh, I didn't know this woman was your grandmother, too!

Sorry, but I think her granddaughter is a teeny bit more qualified to comment on her perspective than you are.

[VeryGrood]

02:52 PM on 05/27/2011

She actually gave her reason- because the destruction of rain forests are negatively impacting the lives of girls in those countries.

Assuming that this practice does negatively impact the lives of girls.... I would think that she has a legitimate point as to what her grandmother would think.