Urge the Girl Scouts of the USA to stop rainforest destruction!
- by: Jaelithe Judy
- recipient: Kathy Cloninger, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA
Are Girl Scout cookies contributing to the destruction of endangered orangutans' rainforest habitat in Indonesia? Girl Scout cookies made in the United States contain palm oil as a major ingredient. Most palm oil is grown using unsustainable industrial farming practices that destroy the Indonesian rainforest, threatening already dwindling populations of endangered wild orangutans.
Two Girl Scouts from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva, have launched a campaign to convince the Girl Scouts of the USA to ban unsustainably farmed palm oil from their cookies. The Girl Scouts' sister organization in the U.K., the Girl Guides, already uses other, more environmentally friendly vegetable oils in their cookies, and Girl Guide cookie producers have already offered to advice U.S. Girl Scout bakers on alternatives to palm oil.
Let's help these young environmental activist Girl Scouts, Madison and Rhiannon, change their organization from within! Ask the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, Kathy Cloninger, to listen to the girls' concerns and ban unsustainable palm oil from Girl Scout cookies.
Dear Kathy Cloninger,
Two Girl Scouts from Michigan, Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, have been working for four years to convince the Girl Scouts of the USA to remove unsustainably farmed palm oil from your cookies.
Large scale industrial farming of palm oil in Indonesia is destroying a fragile rainforest ecosystem and threatening a number of endangered wildlife species, including one of humanity's closest animal relatives, the orangutan.
As an organization the Girl Scouts of the USA works to foster leadership skills and a sense of community responsibility in America's young women. Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva have demonstrated exemplary leadership and a profound devotion to community service during the course of their campaign to help save the Indonesian rainforest and endangered orangutans by reducing consumption of palm oil in the United States.
We ask that you listen to these exceptional young Girl Scout leaders, and ban unsustainably farmed palm oil from all products bearing the Girl Scouts logo.
We thank you for your time and consideration,
