Girl Scout Cookies…Great Idea, Wrong Message

I drove past a super market today and saw a table set up outside with three little girls (with mom (?) planted in a chair in the background), cute as can be, being good little citizens, selling their wares.

It’s a scene we all see every year and it’s usually not all that well received when I politely decline to buy the cookies, should I walk past a table such as I mentioned above.   Despite a kindly worded apology to the girls who ask me if I want to purchase cookies, not surprisingly, they (and their moms) usually  give me a bit of a ‘look’.

How dare I not support the Girl Scouts of America?

It’s actually a quite unfortunate predicament, because if you read through their site, you’ll see that the Girl Scouts of  America has all the best of intentions.  Founded in 1912, based on the premise that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually, it is indeed a worthy cause.

Their site gives a review of  “Why Girl Scout Cookies?” and  explains that ‘the activity of selling cookies is directly related to our purpose of helping all girls realize their full potential and become strong, confident, and resourceful citizens. Girl Scouts learn life skills and are able to realize their goals—and they have fun! All of the proceeds support Girl Scouting in the local community.‘

I completely support the concept of teaching young girls to become strong, confident and resourceful citizens.

But why have they got to peddle a product which contains high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils (yes, they’re in there; products with less than less than 0.5 grams trans fat per serving meet or exceed the FDA guidelines for the “zero trans fat” designation), enriched wheat flours, soybean oils and so on, and so forth?

Even if you take Paleo out of the picture, you cannot argue that any of these ingredients are a good idea; even in moderation.

Now, here I go, waxing poetic:  what if the Girl Scouts sold fruit?  What if they worked with local CSAs and learned how fruit and veggies grow, and how to prepare them and when each one is in season?

Big dreams? Yes, I’m guilty of that… but really, we’ve got to do something.