With little or no access to daycare, some young children follow their parents to the fields, where they come into contact with fertilizers and some pesticides that are banned in other countries. As they grow older, they push wheelbarrows heaped with fruit two or three times their weight. Some weed and prune the trees barefoot, while teen boys may harvest bunches large enough to crush them, slicing the fruit from lofty branches with sickle blades attached to long poles.
Many producers, Western buyers and banks belong to the 4,000-member Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a global non-profit organization that provides a green stamp of approval to those committed to supplying, sourcing, financing or using palm oil that's been certified as ethically sourced. Palm oil is contained in roughly half the products on supermarket shelves and in almost three out of every four cosmetic brands, though that can be hard to discern since it appears on labels under more than 200 different names.
The Girl Scouts did not respond to questions from the AP, directing reporters to the two bakers that make the cookies. Those companies and their parent corporations also had no comment on the findings. Though many consumers aren't familiar with it, palm oil became ubiquitous nearly two decades ago after warnings about health risks associated with trans fats. Almost overnight, food manufacturers began shifting to the highly versatile and cheap oil.
"I am determined to finish high school to find a job outside the plantation," said Jo, who toiled alongside his mother, father and grandfather. "My parents are very poor. Why should I follow my parents?" Migrant workers without documents are often treated "inhumanely" in Malaysia, said Soes Hindharno, an official from Indonesia's Manpower Ministry. He said he had not received any complaints about child labour occurring in his own country, but an official from the ministry that oversees women and children's issues acknowledged it was an area of growing concern in Indonesia.
Alex was 12 when he began working 10 hours a day on a small plantation with his father, hoisting fruits so heavyhis aching muscles kept him awake at night. One day, he decided to sneak off to visit his favourite aunt in a nearby village. With no passport, Alex said authorities quickly found him and carted him off to a crowded immigration detention centre where he was held for a month.
It's such an extensive problem that Indonesia has set up learning centres to help some of its children on plantations in the neighbouring country, even sending in its own teachers. But with such heavy workloads on plantations, one instructor said he had to beg parents to let their sons and daughters come for even just a half-day of classes. And many children, especially those living in remote, hard-to-reach areas, still have no access to any type of education.
Ana was just 13 when she first arrived in Malaysia, quickly learning, as she put it, that "anything can happen to the female workers there." She said she was raped and forced to marry her attacker, but eventually managed to break free after years of abuse and return home to start a new life. Now a mother with kids of her own, she abruptly left Indonesia last year again to look for work in Malaysia.
More than a decade ago, two girls in a Michigan troop stopped selling S'mores and other seasonal favourites because they worried palm oil's expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia was destroying rainforests and killing endangered animals like orangutans. Monitoring the millions of workers hidden beneath palms covering an area equal to roughly the size of New Zealand, however, is next to impossible.
"We aim to prevent and address the issue of child labour wherever it occurs in our supply chain," said Nestle, maker of KitKat candy bars. Unilever -- the world's biggest ice-cream maker, including Magnum -- noted that its suppliers "must not, under any circumstance, employ individuals under the age of 15 or under the local legal minimum age for work or mandatory schooling.
Palm oil, the highest-yielding vegetable oil, is an important part of the two Southeast Asian countries' economies and the governments bristle at any form of criticism, saying the industry plays an important role in alleviating poverty.
Child sex trafficking industry tied to public education and pop culture.
😡
So many companies use forced and child labour So many products while the owners and shareholders get wealthier and wealthier. And it’s nearly impossible to avoid using these products and supporting inhumane, corrupt industry All for profit Capitalism needs to die
Maybe it’s time palm oil was switched out for ethically grown canola oil.
Fucking hell! This year is endless...
i guess tge cookies aren’t made bu Christie’s anymore
Who cares
Did you post this from a phone or computer? Will you self report your own support for use of sketchy products?
Bravo! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙄
OMFG the clothes you wear come from child labour camps ..... shuttttt upppppp
How depraved must you be to take it out on Girl Scouts, whose cookies account for the tiniest portion of all products out there, when BIG FOOD corps dwarf that by billions? During a pandemic too, when raising funds is next to impossible. You're nothing short of criminals CTV.
Yep let's RUIN the Girl Scouts next. Leftist have nothing else to do.
before we think that we somehow have the right to criticize other countries, clean up the house and have the pandemic controlled first. we r not god, we r not doing any better. we cannot even save ourselves, so do not grow our eyes on our foreheads.