My name is Olivia Chaffin. I am 13 years old and a Girl Scout of the Southern Appalachian council. I have sold Girl Scout cookies for many years and have been a top seller in my troop, but I no longer feel I can sell Girl Scout cookies because they contain palm oil. Rainforests are destroyed to grow the palm plants that palm oil comes from. In 2017 I wrote to the president of Girl Scouts concerning palm oil in Girl Scout cookies. She wrote back and told me that it was sustainable palm oil, meaning rainforests were not destroyed to grow the palm plants that that palm oil comes from, but on the box it says mixed sustainable palm oil. I did some research and found out that mixed sustainable means only a portion of the palm oil is sustainable, meaning it is unknown how much sustainable palm oil is in the cookies, it could be a large amount. The reason palm oil is normally used is because it is cheaper than most other oils, but that doesn't justify destroying such a valuable part of life.

Rainforests have the most biodiversity on earth, and medicines and possible new cures come from the rainforest. Rainforests also provide homes and food to many animals. Millions of acres of rainforests are destroyed each year and hundreds of species of animals go extinct every day due to deforestation. According to some scientists, by the year 2030 more than half the Amazon rainforest could be destroyed.

Some of my fellow girl scouts and I are boycotting Girl Scout cookie sales until palm oil is replaced with a completely sustainable oil.

Please sign my petition because the rainforest is a very important part of life.

Thanks, Olivia.