Girl Scout Cookies: Trans-Fat for a Good Cause

"No" trans-fat... (4.00 / 2)

I don't know, maybe it's just me...

But the word "no" is pretty easily defined, isn't it?  Last I checked, it didn't mean "some".

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by: JayinPortland @ Sat Jan 30, 2010 at 23:15:41 PM CST

I gave 'em Up (4.00 / 3)

Years ago I gave up GSC's (and that was after being a GS and selling more cookies than anyone else in my troop,ever, back in the 1970's-I think I sold 1200 boxes of the things. Distribution was a nightmare). Because there were hydrogenated GMO oils and HFCS (which I see is gone). Not to mention the are expensive and taste like so much sweetened shit.

And like y'all I am once again appalled at the 0% Trans fats when clearly there are lots of trans fats. I am also appalled at all the GMO ingredients in these cookies-canola, soy, corn cottonseed, etc..

It seems the GSA are peddling poison in order to make money. i like the idea of the GSA selling fairtrade and organic goods in the future in order to raise money.

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by: Boulder Belt @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 04:57:14 AM CST

[ Parent ]

You're right about the GMO's (4.00 / 2)

that's another thing. The sugar could be GM too, now that sugarbeets are GMOs.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 18:23:28 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I don't care about the fat, now and then (4.00 / 3)

But I do care about destruction of orangutan habitat in the production of the palm oil in the cookies.

I like how these Girl Scouts handled it:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...
Learning about the habitat became a project - and they sold magazines for fundraising. I wonder what else they could do - car washes? make calendars with the Scouts' art and sell them? Creativity is part of scouting.

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by: MaryMactavish @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 02:11:50 AM CST

I care about that too (4.00 / 2)

Girl Scouts used to sell calendars, back in the day. I sold them when I was a Brownie. Giftwrapping at Christmas could bring in big bucks too. Or selling gift wrap even. Not that that's terribly eco-friendly but at least it isn't a health nightmare and it leaves the orangutans out of it.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 18:24:59 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Even giftwrapping could be more (4.00 / 3)

ecologically friendly by using reusuable bags or boxes and doing them up pretty or selling the actual bags and boxes.  

When I was in Brownies we actually made gift wrap one year using sheets of plain newsprint and stamps with poster paint. This was long before 'eco' came into the mainstream. I had a pack leader that was really forward looking and was really into DIY.    

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by: elizajade @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 08:12:06 AM CST

[ Parent ]

cookies (4.00 / 2)

From the Girl Scout cookie wiki

Girl Scout cookies are made by large national commercial bakeries under license from Girl Scouts of the USA. The bakers that the organization licenses can change from year to year, though change is not common. In 2008 the licensed companies were Little Brownie Bakers (LBB), a subsidiary of Keebler, which is owned by Kellogg's, and ABC Bakers, a subsidiary of Interbake Food, which is owned by George Weston Limited. ABC Bakers has been making cookies for the Girl Scouts since 1939.

Your regional council buys cookies from LBB. Tagalongs might not be the worst cookie known to the world, but it is the worst I have seen lately. A serving is less than one ounce (two cookies), which contains 140 calories, of which 80 (57%) are supplied by fat. The ingredient list is

INGREDIENTS: Peanuts, sugar, vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated palm, palm kernel and/or cottonseed oil, soybean and palm oil, hydrogenated palm, soybean and cottonseed oil), enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), dextrose, cocoa powder, contains two percent or less of invert sugar, salt, cornstarch, soy lecithin, leavening (baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), natural and artificial flavor, whey.

How can, why would, anyone devise a cookie recipe in which flour was so far down the ingredient list? Wheat is either first or second on all the packages I just looked at.

Trans fat is not a new issue for Girl Scouts, which has always vigorously defended the voluntary decision to continue using trans fats. They probably will continue this policy, even though trans fats aren't necessary. I just returned from a store, where I perused the labels on industrial cookie packages. Only a few cookies sold as national brands still use hydrogenated oils. They have been completely eliminated from Oreos, for example, and they used to be really bad.

Maybe Girl Scouts needs to hire more competent cookie factories.

We all understand that saying 0 grams of trans fat per serving on a nutrition panel list can be justified in the grand old tradition of rounding down. Girl Scouts goes much farther, however. They use a logo that proudly trumpets 0 grams of trans fat per serving, although the claim is false. The wiki reports

Girl Scout cookies are listed as having "0 trans fat per serving" and will have packaging saying Trans Fat Free.

even though the claim is factually inaccurate.

I couldn't find a photograph showing "Trans Fat Free" labeling. Jill, do your packages have this now?

See the following for the FDA requirement for "Trans Fat Free" labeling, as of April 2008.

IX. Appendix A: Definitions of Nutrient Content Claims

Girl Scouts is required to list the trans fat content per serving as 0 grams on the nutrition panel. That's one thing, but advertising "Trans Fat Free" or using a "0 grams of trans fat per serving" logo in a legal but misleading way, strictly as a marketing gimmick, is a different thing that Girl Scouts might be persuaded to re-think. Doing what they can get away with under the law, instead of doing what is right, should not be the Girl Scout way. Perhaps your troop might like to accept a re-labeling campaign as a project.

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by: count @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 04:47:08 AM CST

they have trans fat 0g (4.00 / 2)

in the nutrition facts label but they don't state trans-fat free elsewhere.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 18:26:17 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I love thin mints.. (4.00 / 3)

but I agree completely. My daughter was a girl scout and I think the organization does good things. But it's as American as apple pie and selling the cookies is an institution. Its really a shame because people would buy healthier cookies just because its the girl scouts.

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by: LeeN @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 06:07:14 AM CST

Not so good for the GS troop either (4.00 / 3)

The worst thing about Girl Scout cookies is that the troop only gets like a few cents a box. My troop always did a wreath sale during the holiday season, and we made so much from selling them that we didn't have to worry about selling lots of boxes of cookies. We sold the cookies because they were delicious. Of course, now that I'm vegan I don't eat 'em anyway. The new Isa Chandra Moskowitz cookbook (Vegan Cookies Invade Your Jar) has a recipe for vegan samoas and they're divine.

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by: lemontwist @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 06:38:28 AM CST

Profits (4.00 / 2)

From the wiki,

Each regional Girl Scout council sets the prices for cookies sold by scouts in that council. A 2006 article in the Boston Globe, noted that price "is hardly ever a factor, until buyers find out that the same box of cookies is selling for less in the next town over": $3.50 in Rockland and $4.00 in neighboring Norwell, reflecting different decisions by the Girl Scout Council of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Girl Scouts Patriots' Trail Council, respectively.
...

The profit from cookie sales is divided among three levels within the Girl Scouts organization: the national Girl Scouts of the USA, the regional councils, and the local troops of girls.

Each Girl Scout council operates its own cookie sale. They set the price per box based on the local economy. The profits are divided by their own formula. Local troops get about 10-15 percent of the price paid, the council takes more than 50 percent, and the manufacturer gets the remainder. For a $4 box, the local troop will earn between 40 and 60 cents per box.

This is garbled. In the last paragraph, does "council" mean both the national group and the regional councils? I don't know.

If a troop does its own sale of something like wreaths, does the troop keep the profits, or does part of the profit go the regional council and the national group?

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by: count @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 12:17:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]

very true (4.00 / 2)

although fundraising via cookie sales does allow the national organization to operate w/o having to make the girls pay high dues to participate. That part is nice. I'm not opposed to the national organization taking a cut of the cash, I just wish the cookies were healthier OR the Girl Scouts sold something better than cookies.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 18:28:18 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Something better than cookies... (0.00 / 0)

I just wish the cookies were healthier OR the Girl Scouts sold something better than cookies.

Great point, brings up some questions.

How long have girl scouts been selling cookies?  Is it basically just tradition at this point?

My daughter, my nieces or my two sisters have never been involved with them, so I really don't know.

Is it just a tradition harking back to the days when cookies were an occasional treat, made in home kitchens or local bakeries with simple ingredients, rather than the mass-produced corporate monstrosities they are today?  And back to a time when obesity wasn't such a public health menace?

Must they continue to sell cookies?  Is it time to update fundraising activities accordingly?

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by: JayinPortland @ Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 19:23:38 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Dim mists of recorded history (4.00 / 2)

From the wiki,

In 1933, Girl Scouts in Philadelphia organized the first official sale, selling homemade cookies at the windows of local utility companies. The first Girl Scout cookie recipe was a sugar cookie. In 1936 the national organization began licensing commercial bakers to produce cookies.

And from my first quote above,

ABC Bakers has been making cookies for the Girl Scouts since 1939.

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by: count @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 00:06:31 AM CST

[ Parent ]