Apr 30, 2008 9:26 pm US/Pacific
Girl Scout Cookie Ingredient Bad For Environment
Some Believe Palm Oil Leading To Orangutan Extinction
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
Everyone has a favorite, from Thin Mints to Carmel Delights. Girl Scout cookies are a favorite guilty pleasure, but the damage may be to more than your diet.
Palm oil, an ingredient found the organization's trademark product, is generating an increasing amount of controversy.
"A few years ago we had transfats in the cookies," said Pam Saltenberger, the CEO of Girl Scouts. "The bakers wanted to get something healthier, so up came palm oil."
There is a great demand for palm oil because it's cheaper and healthier than transfats, making orangutans more likely to become extinct in the next 40 years.
"Orangutans in the wild are sort of under siege from the palm oil industry," said Sacramento zookeeper Leslie Field. She says that the trees are being chopped down for the oil in their natural habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia, and it's slowly killing the species.
"They cut down great swaths of rainforests, sell the hardwood and plant palm oil," she said.
It's a surprising connection for consumers and for Central Valley Girl Scout CEO Pam Saltenberger. "We wouldn't want to do anything that damages the environment or hurts animals," she said.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
