Two Greenhills Middle School students who started a project to earn a Girl Scout Bronze Award have ended up rejecting what may be the best known of their organization's symbols: Girl Scout cookies.

Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, both 12, started doing research last fall on endangered orangutans in Indonesia as part of their Bronze Award project. They discovered that the habitat of orangutans is being threatened by conversion of the land to the production of palm oil, which is an ingredient in Girl Scout cookies.Although they've sold many boxes of Girl Scout cookies over the years, this year they sold magazines instead because of the palm oil issues.

"Just doing the Bronze Award wouldn't be enough," Madison said.

Rhiannon agreed. "We have stopped selling (the cookies)," she said.

The girls have also launched an education drive, giving presentations at their school in Ann Arbor and other area schools and they have established a

Web site

. They also recently met Jane Goodall at a youth conference in Chicago, where Goodall signed their petition against palm oil. Goodall is renowned for her studies of primates and efforts to protect them.

Palm oil production leads to conflict between orangutans and people, the girls said.

"We've seen pictures of orangutans set afire and beaten. You really just want to reach out and do all that you can to help save them," Madison said.

Palm oil, which is produced from a fern-like plant, is grown after the rain forest is logged and then burned - the slash-and-burn agricultural technique practiced for centuries in tropical areas. The deforestation is increasing rapidly, party because the demand for palm oil, which is trans fat free, has risen, the girls said.

They said that palm oil is found in numerous products, including many candies and snacks that they once enjoyed but now avoid.

Trans fat is unhealthy for humans. In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began requiring trans fat to be listed on the Nutrition Facts labels on manufactured food products.

Lisa Raycraft, director of funds development for Girl Scouts of the Huron Valley Council, to which Rhiannon and Madison belong, said cookie sales are a vital part of the organization's funding. Maintaining two camps that involve girls in nature and outdoor skills would not be possible without the cookie sales, Raycraft said.



Reporter Marjorie Kauth-Karjala can be reached at 734-482-2961 or mkarjala@annarbornews.com.

She also said that

ABC Bakers

, which produces cookies sold by the council, has said it is committed to using palm oil grown on rehabilitated or previously cleared land rather than on land that is deforested specifically for palm oil production. Raycraft also gave The News a letter from the company that said it is researching how to use as little palm oil as possible.

The girls said the explanation does not satisfy them and they plan to continue their boycott of Girl Scout cookies.

Raycraft said the council will work with the girls and has invited them to make their presentation about the dangers of palm oil to Girl Scout leaders prior to next year's cookie sale. The education effort is to be part of Rhiannon and Madison's work toward the Girl Scout Silver Award, Raycraft said.

The two girls said they plan to continue as Girl Scouts despite the conflict. "Overall, it's a pretty good organization," Madison said.