A Girl Scout evokes a connection to the palm oil industry and child labor in Girl Scout cookies

They are two young girls from two completely different worlds, linked by a global industry that exploits an army of children.

Olivia Chaffin, a Boy Scout in rural Tennessee, was a top seller of cookies in her troop when she first learned that rainforests were being destroyed to make way for ever-expanding oil palm plantations. On one of those plantations, one continent away, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruit that finds its way into a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands.

Ima is one of an estimated tens of thousands of children who often work with their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, supplying 85% of the world’s most consumed vegetable oil. An Associated Press survey found that most earn little or no wages 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 are vulnerable to human trafficking or sexual abuse.

The AP used U.S. customs records and the most recently published data from producers, traders, and buyers to trace the fruits of their labor from the palm kernel crushing plants to the supply chains of many popular children’s cereals, candies and ice cream sold by Nestle, Unilever , Kellogg’s, PepsiCo and many other leading food companies, including Ferrero – one of the two makers of Girl Scout cookies.

Olivia, who earned a badge for selling more than 600 boxes of cookies, had spotted 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 ‘certified sustainable’. She assumed this meant that her Thin Mints and Tagalongs did not harm rainforests, orangutans or those harvesting the orange-red palm fruit.

But later, the clever 11-year-old saw the word “mixed” on the label and soon discovered that it meant exactly what she feared: sustainable palm oil was mixed with oil from unsustainable sources. For her, that meant the cookies she was selling were rotten.

Moved from group 4 to work fields

Thousands of miles away, in Indonesia, Ima led her math class and dreamed of becoming a doctor. Then her father dropped out of school to help achieve his high business goals on the oil palm plantation where she was born. Instead of going to fourth grade, she crouched in the relentless heat and snatched up the loose kernels that lay on the floor.

She sometimes worked 12 hours a day, wearing only flip-flops and no gloves, crying when the razor-sharp tips of the fruit bleed her hands or prick scorpions in her fingers. The cargoes she was carrying went to one of the factories that ended up in the Olivia’s cookie supply chain.

“I dream that one day I can go to school again,” she told the AP.

Dark spot on the $ 65 billion industry

Child labor has long been a dark spot in the global $ 65 billion 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 fields. In some cases, an entire family can earn less per day than a $ 5 box of Girl Scout Do-si-dos.

“For 100 years, families have been trapped in a cycle of poverty and they know nothing but working on an oil palm plantation,” said researcher Kartika Manurung, who has published reports on labor issues on Indonesian plantations.

The AP’s investigation into child labor is part of a broader in-depth look at the industry that also exposed rape, forced labor, and slavery. Reporters traversed Malaysia and Indonesia, speaking to more than 130 current and former employees – some two dozen child laborers – at nearly 25 companies.

US Customs and Borders in September blocked shipments of palm oil and palm oil products from FGV Holdings Berhad, a major producer in Malaysia, 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 uncovered a litany of labor abuse in the palm oil industry in Malaysia and Indonesia.

“We would like to re-urge the US importing community to do their due diligence,” said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner at the US Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade in September, adding that they should look into their palm oil supply chains . “We also encourage US consumers to ask questions about where their products are coming from.”

The tainted palm oil was traced back to 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 said they do not know how many children work in the country’s huge palm oil industry. But the UN International Labor Organization has an estimated 1.5 million children between the ages of 10 and 17 at work in the agricultural sector. Palm oil is one of the largest crops and employs about 16 million people.

In much smaller neighboring Malaysia, a recently published government report estimated that more than 33,000 children work in the industry – nearly half of them between the ages of 5 and 11. That report was not directly about the tens of thousands of so-called ‘stateless persons. “boys and girls living in the country with parents from neighboring countries.

An official from the Malaysian Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Nageeb Wahab, head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, called allegations of child labor very serious and urged to report complaints to authorities.

Soes Hindharno, an official with the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, said he had received no complaints about child labor in his own country, but a ministry official who oversees women’s and child issues called it an area of ​​growing concern.

Many producers, Western buyers and banks are part of the 4,000-member Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a global association that gives a green stamp of approval to those committed to palm oil certified as ethically sourced. The RSPO has a system to address complaints, including allegations of labor abuse. But of the nearly 100 complaints reported on the case tracker in the two Southeast Asian countries in the past decade, only a handful have mentioned children.

Dan Strechay, the RSPO’s global outreach and engagement director, said the association has partnered with UNICEF and others to educate members about child labor.

KitKats, Oreos, Cap’n Crunch and more

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

Olivia isn’t the first Girl Scout to ask questions about how palm oil ends up in the cookies. More than a decade ago, two girls in a Michigan troop campaigned against its use, leading the Girl Scouts of the USA to join the RSPO and agree to use sustainable palm oil, adding the green tree logo to the approximately 200 million boxes of cookies. , generating nearly $ 800 million annually.

The Girl Scouts did not respond to inquiries from the AP, sending reporters to the two bakers who make the cookies – Little Brownie Bakers in Kentucky and ABC Bakers in Virginia. Those companies and their parent companies, Ferrero and Weston Foods respectively, also did not comment on the findings. But both said they were committed to purchasing only certified sustainable palm oil.

When contacted by the AP, other companies reaffirmed their support for human rights for all employees, and some noted that they depend on their suppliers to meet industry standards and adhere to local laws. If evidence of misconduct is found, some said they would cut ties with producers immediately.

“We strive to prevent and address the problem of child labor wherever it occurs in our supply chain,” said Nestle, maker of KitKat candy bars. And Kellogg’s, Pop-Tarts’ parent company, said it was determined to work with suppliers to find “fully traceable palm oil.” There was no response from Mondelez, owner of Oreo cookies, or Cap’n Crunch parent company PepsiCo.

Now 14 years old, Olivia, who lives in Jonesborough, Tennessee, has started a petition to have palm oil removed from Girl Scout cookies. And she no longer sells them.

“I thought Girl Scouts was meant to make the world a better place,” she said. “But this doesn’t make the world any better.”