Photos: Child labor in palm oil industry tied to Girl Scout cookies
Olivia Chaffin, 14, displays merit badges Nov. 1, 2020, that she has been awarded for selling Girl Scout Cookies in Jonesborough, Tenn. She was a top cookie seller in her troop when she first heard rainforests were being destroyed to produce palm oil. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Olivia Chaffin, 14, stands for a portrait with her Girl Scout sash in Jonesborough, Tenn., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Olivia is asking Girl Scouts across the country to band with her and stop selling cookies, saying, "The cookies deceive a lot of people. They think it's sustainable, but it isn't." (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Olivia Chaffin makes photographs in a wooded area as she works on a Girl Scout photography merit badge in Jonesborough, Tenn., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Olivia Chaffin, center, stands for a portrait with her parents, Doug, left, and Kim Chaffin, at their home in Jonesborough, Tenn., on Nov. 1, 2020. Olivia, who stopped selling Girl Scout cookies because they contain palm oil says, "I'm not just some little girl who can't do anything about this. … Children can make change in the world. And we're going to." (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Olivia Chaffin displays a 2017 response she received from the chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts to her concerns with palm oil being used in Girl Scout Cookies in Jonesborough, Tenn., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. "I thought Girl Scouts was supposed to be about making the world a better place," she said. "But this isn't at all making the world better." (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Olivia Chaffin, center, walks in the woods with her parents, Doug, left, and Kim Chaffin, as Olivia works on a Girl Scout photography merit badge in Jonesborough, Tenn., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Olivia, who stopped selling Girl Scout cookies because they contain palm oil says, "I'm not just some little girl who can't do anything about this. … Children can make change in the world. And we're going to." (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
A child carries palm kernels collected from the ground at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
Students of a boarding school rest in their dormitory in North Kalimantan, Indonesia, on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. Some palm oil workers who work illegally in Malaysia send their children to the school in this transit town because they have no access to education in Malaysia due to their parents' employment status. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A police officer plays with a child deported with his Indonesian family for working illegally in Malaysia, at an immigration office processing center in Nunukan, Indonesia, on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
Crosses stand in a cemetery in Tawau, Malaysia, on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018, where the grandchild and husband of Anna, 45, a migrant worker from Indonesia, are buried. She said her son, whose newborn baby was buried next to the infant's grandfather and other migrant workers, had inherited his father's job working on a palm oil plantation. He is the family's main breadwinner. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A child helps her parents work on a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. Many children gather loose kernels and clear brush from the trees with machetes. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
Ima, a girl who works informally to help her parents in a palm oil plantation, poses for a portrait in Sumatra, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2018. She was just 10 years old when she joined the throngs of children working on vast plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world's palm oil, used in a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A child collects palm kernels from the ground at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A boy collects palm kernels from the ground at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Indonesian government officials said they do not know how many children work in the country's massive palm oil industry, either full or part time. But the U.N.'s International Labor Organization has estimated 1.5 million children between 10 and 17 years old labor in its agricultural sector. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A child carries palm kernels collected from the ground across a creek at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. Child labor has long been a dark stain on the $65 billion global palm oil industry. Though often denied or minimized as kids simply helping their families on weekends or after school, it has been identified as a problem by human rights groups, the United Nations and the U.S. government. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A child collects palm kernels from the ground at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. Indonesia is the world's largest palm oil producer. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
A child helps her parents work on a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. With little or no access to daycare, some young children in Indonesia and Malaysia follow their parents to the fields, where they are exposed to toxic pesticides and fertilizers. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
Child labor has long been a dark stain on the $65 billion global palm oil industry. In some cases, an entire family may earn less in a day than a $5 box of Girl Scout Do-si-dos.
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