Remove GMOs from Girl Scout Cookies Facebook page has announced their success of their online petition to have Girl Scout Cookies release a non-GMO cookie. According to their page, Girl Scout Cookies announced their intentions to release a non-GMO verified cookie in their seasonal release for 2017.
March Against Monsanto also celebrated the good news, stating that a “non-GMO has officially gone mainstream: one of the country’s most recognized institutions, the Girl Scouts of the USA (formerly known as America) has announced its first-ever (officially speaking, anyway) non-GMO cookie.”
Unfortunately, when something appears too good to be true, it usually is, and this celebration may be a little early on its timing.
According to the official statement released, the two new flavors that Girl Scouts is set to release in 2017 for their 100th anniversary, commemorating the selling of Girl Scout Cookies, are nothing but new flavors. Yes, they are a little healthier in some of the ingredients they have changed, but not once is this an indicator that we have a fully non-GMO cookie in our cookie jar.
The description of the two cookies – as enticing as they sound – is this:
“The chocolatey coated Girl Scout S’mores™ cookie is vegan, free of artificial colors, preservatives, and partially hydrogenated oils.” It’s vegan, not non-GMO.
On the other hand, although they don’t come right out and say it, the sandwich cookie offers more hope:
“The sandwich Girl Scout S’mores cookie contains no artificial flavors or colors, high fructose corn syrup, or hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. All current and new Girl Scout Cookie varieties are kosher and free of trans fats.”
Trans fats are bad for you – so a good move by Girl Scouts; the kosher thing is a positive step, too. No mention of GMOs … however, in their FAQs sheet, if you dig for the information, you will see that they are, for the moment, non-GMO.
To further clarify the non-GMO/GMO debate about the cookies, Girl Scouts – on their official FAQs page (updated this year), does clarify that there is indeed GMOs in most of their products:
“At the current time, there are genetically modified agricultural crops (GMOs) in some Girl Scout Cookies based on a range of market-related factors and depending on specific cookie recipes.”
They do, however, speak about the sandwich Girl Scout cookie being specialist, not containing GMOs at this point in time:
“In some markets, the specialty-ingredient Girl Scout S’mores sandwich cookie baked by Little Brownie Bakers is made with ingredients that are verified as not containing genetically modified organisms.”
Going on to say that “It is also important to note that in the future, GMO ingredients may offer new, cost-effective alternatives to feeding the world’s growing population,” as they cite the WHO and other world authorities about how safe the “genetically modified agricultural crops” are, suggesting that the sandwich cookie isn’t a permanent fixture unless cost effective.
This latest move is just to appease the masses they haven’t reached yet. It’s all about the dollar. Their reluctance to make an outright statement proves this, and the amount of reading between the lines and searching that one has to go about, just to discover that one single line of cookie is made without using GMO products isn’t positive, it’s disconcerting. It feels as though Girl Scouts is folding the evidence away, worried their dirty little secret may be discovered by big corporations supporting them.
The work done by all those who have petitioned Girl Scouts is to be commended and applauded. But their breaking out of the champagne is premature.
This article (Girl Scout Cookies Announces Non-GMO Cookie, But Advocates for GMOs Overall) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author AnonWatcher and AnonHQ.com.
Supporting Anonymous’ Independent & Investigative News is important to us. Please, follow us on Twitter: Follow @AnonymousNewsHQ
