Girl Scout cookies have been linked to child labor on palm oil plantations, report says

• Palm oil is frequently used in confectionery, and an AP report claims the oil used in some Girl Scout cookies is harvested using child labor.
• The AP spoke to a 10 year-old child laborer who works in the supply chain for one of the two bakeries licensed to produce Girl Scout cookies.
• Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout from Tennessee, is now petitioning the organization to stop using palm oil and has stopped selling cookies.

Some Girl Scout cookies contain palm oil which is harvested using child labor, a new report from Associated Press has revealed.

AP's reporters traced palm oil products using US customs records and other publicly available data to unearth the supply chains used by huge brands including Ferrero. As part of a wider investigative series into the palm oil industry, AP reporters went to palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, where they spoke to child laborers and their families.

Ferrero, which also owns Nutella, bought the Little Brownie Bakers brand from Kellogg's in April 2019 as part of a $1.3 billion deal, one of only two brands licensed to make official Girl Scouts Cookies. The second brand, ABC Bakers, is owned by Canada-based Weston Foods.

Ferrero's cookies have a green tree "certified sustainable" label, but this is accompanied by a "mixed" label, meaning not all the palm oil used has to be sustainable. Ferrero did not comment on allegations of child labor in its supply chain when contacted by the AP, and was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.

The AP spoke to a 10 year-old child laborer working at a palm oil plantation in Ferrero's supply chain. She told the AP she sometimes works 12 hour days, regularly cuts herself harvesting the spiky palm fruits, and is stung by scorpions. "I am dreaming one day I can go back to school," she told the AP.

The AP spoke to 14 year-old Girl Scout Olivia Chaffin from Tennessee, who, upon discovering that not all the palm oil in Girl Scout Cookies is ethically sourced, is now petitioning the organization to remove palm oil from the cookies' ingredients.

"I thought Girl Scouts was supposed to be about making the world a better place," Chaffin told the AP. "But this isn't at all making the world better." She and some other members of her troop have stopped selling cookies.

The AP could not ascertain whether the palm oil in ABC Bakers Girl Scout cookies is made using child labor.

Business Insider has contacted Girl Scouts of America for comment.