A Girl Scout connects to the palm oil industry and child labor in Girl Scout cookies

They are two young girls from two very different worlds, connected to a global industry that exploits an army of children.

Olivia Chaffin, a Tennessee scout, was the best cookie seller in her band when she first heard that rainforests are being destroyed to make way for ever-expanding palm oil plantations. On one of those plantations on a distant continent, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruits that make their way into a dizzying range of products sold by top Western brands in food and cosmetics.

Ima is among the estimated tens of thousands of children who often work with their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, who supply 85% of the world’s most consumed vegetable oil. An Associated Press survey found that most earn little or nothing and are routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazardous conditions. Some never go to school or learn to read and write. Others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking or sexual abuse.

The AP used US customs records and the latest published data from producers, traders and buyers to track the fruits of their labor from processing plants where palm kernels were crushed in the supply chains of many grains, candies and ice cream. popular for children. by Nestle, Unilever, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo and many other major food companies, including Ferrero – one of the two producers of Girl Scout cookies.

Olivia, who won a badge for selling more than 600 boxes of cookies, had seen palm oil as an ingredient on the back of one of her packages, but was relieved to see a green tree logo next to the words “sustainable certificate.” She assumed that this meant that Thin Minds and Tagalongs did not harm tropical forests, orangutans, or those who harvest orange-red palm fruit.

But later, the 11-year-old smart whip saw the word “mixed” on the label and quickly learned that it meant exactly what it feared: durable palm oil had been mixed with oil from unsustainable sources. To her, that meant the cakes she sold were stained.

Drawn from 4th grade to work areas

Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, Ima took her math class and dreamed of becoming a doctor. Then her father made her drop out of school to pursue her high company goals on the palm oil plantation where she was born. Instead of attending fourth grade, he crouched in the incessant heat, snatching the loose kernels from the ground.

Sometimes he worked 12 hours a day, wearing only flip-flops and no gloves, crying when the sharp tips of the fruit bled on his hands or scorpions stung his fingers. The loads she was carrying went to one of the factories that supplied Olivia’s cookie supply chain.

“I dreamed one day that I could go back to school,” she told AP.

The industry’s $ 65 billion dark spot

Child labor has long been a dark stain on the $ 65 billion global palm oil industry, identified as a problem by rights groups, the United Nations and the US government.

With little or no access to childcare, some young children in both countries follow their parents to the field. In some cases, an entire family can earn less in a day than a $ 5 box of Girl Scout Do-and-dos.

“For 100 years, families have been stuck in a cycle of poverty and know nothing but to work on a palm oil plantation,” said researcher Kartika Manurung, who published reports detailing labor problems on Indonesian plantations.

The PA’s investigation into child labor is part of a more in-depth analysis of the industry, which has also exposed rape, forced labor trafficking and slavery. Reporters traveled through Malaysia and Indonesia, talking to more than 130 current and former workers – about two dozen of them child workers – at nearly 25 companies.

Customs and US borders in September blocked shipments of palm oil and palm oil products from FGV Holdings Berhad, a major Malaysian producer, after a wide range of indicators of labor abuse were found, including physical and sexual violence and forced child labor. The customs order came a week after the Associated Press investigation exposed a litany of labor abuses in the palm oil industry in Malaysia and Indonesia.

“We have again urged the U.S. importing community to do their due diligence,” said Brenda Smith, assistant executive commissioner at the U.S. Bureau of Commerce Customs and Border Protection in September, adding that they should look at their oil supply chains. of palm. “We would also encourage American consumers to ask questions about the origin of their products.”

Contaminated palm oil has been tracked in the supply chains of the world’s most iconic food and cosmetics companies, including Unilever, L’Oreal, Nestle and Procter & Gamble.

1.5 million children in Indonesia alone

Indonesian government officials say they do not know how many children work in the country’s massive palm oil industry. But the UN’s International Labor Organization has estimated 1.5 million children between the ages of 10 and 17 in its agricultural sector. Palm oil is one of the largest crops, employing about 16 million people.

In much smaller neighboring Malaysia, a new government report estimated that more than 33,000 children work in the industry there – almost half of them between the ages of 5 and 11. This report did not directly address the tens of thousands of so-called “stateless persons”. “Boys and girls living in the country with parents from neighboring countries.

An official from Malaysia’s Ministry of Industries and Plantation Goods did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Nageeb Wahab, head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, called the child labor allegations very serious and called for complaints to be reported to authorities.

Soes Hindharno, an Indonesian Ministry of Labor official, said she has not received any complaints about child labor happening in her own country, but a ministry official overseeing women’s and children’s issues has labeled it As a growing area of ​​concern.

Many Western producers, buyers and banks belong to the 4,000-member roundtable on sustainable palm oil, a global association that offers a green stamp of approval to those who are committed to dealing with ethically certified palm oil. RSPO has a system in place to resolve grievances, including allegations of labor abuse. However, of the nearly 100 complaints listed on his case tracker in the last decade in the two Southeast Asian countries, only one hand mentioned children.

Dan Strechay, RSPO’s global director of information and involvement, said the association has begun working with UNICEF and others to educate members about what constitutes child labor.

KitKats, Oreos, Cap’n Crunch and more

Palm oil is contained in about half of the products on supermarket shelves and in almost three out of four brands of cosmetics, and many children are presented on the day they are born – it is a primary fat in infant formulas. As they grow, it is present in many of their favorite foods: it is in their Pop-Tarts and Cap’n Crunch cereals, Oreo cookies, KitKat bars, Magnum ice cream, donuts and even bubble gum.

Olivia is not the first Girl Scout to ask questions about how palm oil makes its way into cookies. More than a decade ago, two girls in a Michigan band campaigned against its use, leading U.S. scouts to join RSPO and agree to start using sustainable palm oil, adding the green tree logo to about 200 million boxes of cookies, which bring in nearly $ 800 million annually.

Girl Scouts did not answer AP questions, directing reporters to the two bakers who produce the cookies – Little Brownie Bakers of Kentucky and ABC Bakers of Virginia. These companies and their parent corporations, namely Ferrero and Weston Foods, did not comment on the findings either. But both said they were committed to providing only certified sustainable palm oil.

When contacted by the PA, other companies asserted their support for human rights for all workers, with some noticing that they relied on their suppliers to meet industry standards and local laws. If evidence of wrongdoing is found, some have said they will immediately sever ties with producers.

“We aim to prevent and address the issue of child labor whenever it appears in our supply chain,” said Nestle, KitKat, a candy maker. And Kellogg’s, the parent company of Pop-Tarts, said it was committed to working with suppliers to obtain “fully traceable palm oil.” There has been no response from Mondelez, which owns Oreo cookies, or Cap’n Crunch’s parent company, PepsiCo.

14 years ago, Olivia, who lives in Jonesborough, Tennessee, started a petition to remove palm oil from Girl Scout cookies. And he stopped selling them.

“I thought Girl Scouts should make the world a better place,” she said. “But that doesn’t make the world any better.”