Oreo is starting 2021 with a brand new smash-up cookie.
On Tuesday, the cookie baker announced its limited-edition Brookie-O cookies on social media.
A traditional brookie is a bar made with layers of chocolate chip cookie dough and brownies. The Brookie-O will keep the traditional Oreo cookies, with three layers of filling: cookie dough, brownie and classic Oreo creme.
"Introducing Brookie-O, our newest Limited Edition cookie!" Oreo wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. "And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you, there really are three layers of cookie dough, brownie, and original OREO creme in every cookie."
"Three layers of creme are better than one," the tweet said. "Say hi to Brookie-O, our newest limited-edition flavor with brownie, original creme, and cookie dough!"
The Brookie-O isn’t the only exciting treat that Oreo has up its sleeve for the new year.
A brookie is a bar made with a layer of brownie and chocolate chip cookie dough. (iStock)
Oreo, owned by Nabisco, announced in December that it has partnered with Lady Gaga to create a new cookie variety inspired by her 2020 album "Chromatica."
The cookies, which will be released in 2021, will feature pink-hued Golden Oreo wafers sandwiching a green crème filling. Each will also be embossed with one of four designs: one classic, and three others inspired by whatever Gaga’s "Chromatica" album is trying to convey.
Though it is unclear when the full-size packages will be officially released, Oreo did reveal that six-packs will be on shelves at convenience stores in January.
Fox News’ Michael Bartiromo contributed to this report.
CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – The light at the end of the tunnel is still pretty dim for many small businesses reeling from the impact of COVID-19. But one local bakery cooked up a bold idea that is getting attention from across the country.
“I’m kind of obsessed with his saying and the way he words things. I think we all are a little bit,” said Morgan Morrison at Rock City Cake Company.
Morrison and the team at the business on Capitol Street are known for their delicious pastries and their sense of humor. Those are qualities they put to use when they cooked up what they are calling “The Big Jim Says Cookie Set”. The set features some of Governor Jim Justice’s most talked about colorful quotes. The Governor took a picture with the cookies and posted it on social media.
“A lot of my sayings are pretty bizarre, and I thought it was pretty hilarious to tell you the truth,” Justice said about the cookies.
Morrison said they made sure to reach out to Justice’s staff and get his blessing before taking this idea public.
“We were really excited that he accepted them and was a really good sport about it,” she said.
While having a chuckle is therapeutic for everyone, the deeper issue is small businesses are struggling to survive as the pandemic continues. Within hours of the post going online, they had sold 150 dozen of the cookies. They will be shipping as far away as California.
“We are always trying to think of ways we can be creative and bring a little lightheartedness to the situation because it has been such a hard and dark year,” Morrison said. “We are going to have to start mass-producing these things and we are just really thankful.”
The Governor’s post has been shared 13,000 times so far and Morrison said it has reached close to a million people.
“Who knows, we might make a second edition because there are so many ‘Big Jim-inisms’ around,” Morrison said. She said the boost in sales comes at a good time because January is typically a slow month, even without COVID-19.
They aren’t taking any more cookie reservations for this weekend but they plan to have them available through January.
Follow Nicky Walters on Facebook and Twitter for the latest local and breaking news.
For local and breaking news, weather alerts, video and more, download the FREE WOWK 13 News App from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
Sometimes all you need to make a great treat is a waffle iron and a ready-to-eat cookie — at least that's what TikTok user @michaellasmitth illustrated in her popular video.
The short clip, which currently has over 2 million views and 183,000 likes, shows a store-bought frosted sugar cookie going into a waffle maker and coming out as a totally new, crispy treat. Some commenters who tried the hack for themselves called it "genius" and "game changing" while others noted the disrespect to their favorite cookie.
As a devoted sugar-cookie fan — especially of the Lofthouse-style ones — I immediately knew I had to try this waffle-maker trend to see if it really deserved all the hype it's been getting.
I used a standard-size waffle maker instead of a miniature one, so I experimented with placing the cookies in the center and individual corners
I bought Lofthouse-style sugar cookies.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
The TikTok user didn't clarify exactly how long to leave the sugar cookie in the waffle iron. The editing makes it seem like it was ready in a few seconds, but the dessert could have been in there for well over a minute or longer.
My appliance has an adjustable temperature setting, and I don't even know which level to choose when making standard waffles.
I opted for a medium-high heat in the hopes of getting that signature crinkle look without burning the frosting.
I baked the cookies for just over a minute and a half.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
To prepare the waffle treat, I applied a light coating of nonstick spray to my iron, placed the cookies on it, closed the top, and let the dessert bake for a little more than a minute and a half.
When I opened the waffle maker, I saw that the frosting had melted into the cookie and around the sides of the iron
The sugar sizzled in the oil.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
The cookie looked nothing like what I had expected it would, but it appeared quite similar to the results of other TikTok users.
Some of the colors were totally absorbed by the sugar cookie itself, and the baked crevices turned a rich, golden hue that resembled an actual waffle.
The residual sugar on the sides of the iron combined with the nonstick spray and made loud smacking, sizzling sounds as I removed the treat.
The cookie smelled amazing
I loved how this experiment made my apartment smell.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
My entire apartment smelled like a cross between a bakery and an ice-cream parlor within 30 seconds of this cookie being under the iron.
Seriously, if I could capture that exact scent in a candle, I'd burn it all year.
The hack completely changed the flavor and texture of the cookie
The twice-baked cookies were more buttery and less sweet.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
It could've been that I'm used to eating these desserts at room temperature or cold, or maybe the frosting melted into the dough and made the cookie itself the center of attention, but the change was drastic.
The waffle treat had more of a butter-forward flavor than of a sugary-sweet one. It was actually pretty tasty but undoubtedly different from the original cookie.
If anything, it mostly reminded me of eating something between a boxed ice-cream cone and a carnival funnel cake, which is a pretty delicious duo.
It probably would be best enjoyed paired with a rich flavor of ice cream or another topping.
As other users mentioned, it seemed like the frosting became crumbly after melting and solidifying
The crystallized frosting resembled a glaze.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
The cooked frosting tasted a lot like the kind you'd find on a glazed doughnut.
Sure, it had a yummy flavor, but I didn't think it compared to the rich, smooth alternative the cookies had straight out of the container.
I thought the waffle cookie was pretty good but not as impressive as the hype made it seem
The waffle-maker hack completely changed the dessert.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
I'll give credit where credit is due: I thought it was neat how the soft cookie formed a super crispy exterior without burning.
There may be a mess of melted frosting and cooking oil sitting in my waffle iron, but nothing about this dessert was soggy. It had a scrumptious crispy bite on the outside that easily crumbled but did a good job of staying together.
At the same time, it also had a drier, crunchy interior that I wasn't thrilled about.
The twice-baked cookies were too dry on the inside to be fully enjoyable.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
I would have preferred the middle to be fluffier like a normal waffle, but since these cookies already go into the iron precooked, it would likely be a challenge to make happen.
After scrolling through TikTok's waffle-maker hashtag, I saw that many people who made these served them with whipped cream, which would probably make them taste a lot better.
I wasn't too impressed with the finished product.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
Ultimately, I didn't think the flavor or texture was anything to write home about.
The cookie looked cool and interesting, but at the end of the day, it was just a drier version of the original with some yummy pockets of crystallized sugar.
I didn't want to eat more than one, even if I had experimented with making several batches on different parts of the iron to see how they would look.
I also tried this same waffle-maker trick with a store-bought chocolate-chip cookie
I wanted to try this hack with other store-bought cookies.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
After seeing how the Lofthouse-style cookies turned out in the waffle maker, I was curious to see how the process would affect the texture and flavor of other popular store-bought cookies.
The waffle-ironed chocolate chip had the most pleasing aroma but it didn't taste great
Reheating these cookies burned some of the chocolate.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
The biggest issue was that the added heat created an uneven texture throughout this cookie.
Some bites had a slightly crunchy, yet soft texture like an actual waffle, but others kept sticking to my teeth like pieces of hard candy or overcooked toffee.
I suppose that should've been expected from a cookie that was technically already baked.
This option may have worked better if I had cooked it at a lower temperature.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
Additionally, some of the chocolate chips nicely melted in the waffle maker while others developed an unpleasant, burnt taste, which sort of ruined the whole thing.
On the plus side, I was impressed with the yummy brown-sugar notes the second bake highlighted. If I ever opt to try this experiment again, I'll probably heat up the cookie at a much lower temperature to harness this rich flavor.
The last cookie I used in this experiment was an original Oreo
I was curious how Oreos would come out twice baked.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
Like with the previous two options, I placed the cookies on the iron, closed the top, and let them cook for a little more than a minute and a half.
The Oreos were too hard to mold to the waffle maker.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
Aesthetically speaking, the Oreos looked the least appetizing out of all of the reheated treats.
After I pulled them out of the waffle press, each one looked like a cookie that had been smashed by an angry child.
The cream leaked out of the sides and the exterior was squished with two square, waffle-like indents in the center.
To my surprise, the waffle-iron hack worked best with the Oreos, but their filling developed a weird aftertaste
Other Oreo alternatives may also work with this hack.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
The Oreos looked the least appetizing in terms of aesthetics, but their cocoa component took well to being cooked again.
Through the heating process, the crunchy cookies developed a toasted nuance that reminded me of a chocolate-flavored graham cracker.
The iconic Oreo flavor was slightly tainted.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
However, the signature cream didn't fare as well when warmed.
In addition to forming a sticky mess in the iron, the famous filling lost all of its signature sweetness. Instead, it had an oily, processed flavor and an unpleasant aftertaste.
Overall, I had a fun time making the waffle cookies, but I'm not sure if the end product was worth the effort and cleanup
Although the waffle cookies were a fun, tasty snack, they weren't as amazing or life-changing as some people on TikTok made them out to be.
Although this hack wasn't game changing, it could still be a fun pastime.Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider
These waffle cookies may be your answer if you're a big fan of crispy, sweet treats or looking for something fun to make with roommates or kids.
But if you're devoted to the fluffy sweetness of soft cookies, you probably won't be impressed with the way this dessert turns out. I know I wasn't.
On the plus side, this experiment inspired me to check out #miniwafflemaker on TikTok, where I've since learned that there are so many things that can be "waffled."
But for now, I think I'll stick to eating cookies my favorite way — straight from the box.
The Girl Scouts of the USA said Wednesday that child labor has no place in its iconic cookies and called on the two companies that bake them to act quickly to address any potential abuses linked to the palm oil in their supply chains.
The comments were sent in the form of a tweet to Associated Press reporters who released an investigation Tuesday linking Girl Scout cookies and the supply chains of other well-known food brands to an estimated tens of thousands of children who often work unpaid for long hours in hazardous conditions to help harvest palm fruits on plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia.
“Child labor has no place in Girl Scout Cookie production,” the Girl Scouts tweeted. “Our investment in the development of our world’s youth must not be facilitated by the under-development of some.”
The Girl Scouts also referred to a not-for-profit global organization it belongs to called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which promotes ethical production, including the treatment of workers, writing: “If certain suppliers are not following ethical practices, we expect our bakers and RSPO to take action quickly to rectify those exceptions.”
The Girl Scouts had not responded to repeated requests from the AP for comment about the findings ahead of Tuesday’s story, which found many children working in the palm oil industry do not have access to adequate school or healthcare and that some never learn to read or write. The story detailed how others live in fear of being rounded up by police and tossed in detention centers because they were born on plantations to parents who are working illegally, and how girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Reporters traced child labor to the supply chain of one of the Girl Scout cookies’ bakers, Little Brownie Bakers, owned by the Italian confectionery brand Ferrero, which did not comment on the findings. The other baker and its parent company, Canada-based Weston Foods, did not provide any details about its supply chain, citing proprietary reasons. Both said they were committed to sourcing sustainable palm oil.
BLOOMINGTON — If you do a Google search of the phrase “dumpster fire,” you will get more than 5 million results. People who ordered from a Bloomington bakery are getting a sweet version of a dumpster fire: decorated cookies.
It all started with a custom order from Grove Street Bakery, 812 E. Grove St.
“A customer asked us if we could do some 2020 theme cookies,” said Parker Boyes, who owns the bakery with his wife, Peggy Finnegan-Boyes. They came up with cookies that looked like the COVID-19 virus, toilet paper and a burning dumpster with “2020” on it.
They thought the “dumpster fire,” in particular, was funny and “we thought other people might like them,” said Boyes.
So, once the Christmas rush was over, they offered them as a pre-order option on Tuesday with pickup on New Year’s Eve. They got orders for 635 cookies.
“I think people like to laugh when they can,” said Finnegan-Boyes.
“It’s good medicine,” added her husband.
The phrase “dumpster fire,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence,” has captured the essence of 2020 and joined “pivot,” “Zoom” and “new normal” in our everyday language.
“I’m glad that we can giggle at the end of it,” said Finnegan-Boyes, who admitted the year has had its ups and downs.
But Finnegan-Boyes said, “In some ways, we’re lucky. We don’t know how it’s supposed to go.”
Before buying the bakery, she had been an art teacher at Metcalf Laboratory School, Illinois State University’s College of Fine Arts and at schools in Texas.
“Teaching was the best job to prepare me for owning a business because it’s different every day and you have to adapt,” she said.
They removed a screen from a sliding front window at the bakery and converted it into a walk-up window.
“We have a great team,” said Boyes, referring to their employees, who were busy taking orders and baking Wednesday. The bakery has a variety of products in addition to cookies, including doughnuts, cinnamon rolls and other pastries.
“We’ve been so lucky because the community is so supportive,” Finnegan-Boyes said. “People have been willing to stand out in the cold and rain and wait.”
Lenore Sobota's most memorable stories of 2020
Contact Lenore Sobota at (309) 820-3240. Follow her on Twitter: @Pg_Sobota
The Girl Scouts of the USA said Wednesday that child labor has no place in its iconic cookies and called on the two companies that bake them to act quickly to address any potential abuses linked to the palm oil in their supply chains.
The comments were sent in the form of a tweet to Associated Press reporters who released an investigation Tuesday linking Girl Scout cookies and the supply chains of other well-known food brands to an estimated tens of thousands of children who often work unpaid for long hours in hazardous conditions to help harvest palm fruits on plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia.
“Child labor has no place in Girl Scout Cookie production,” the Girl Scouts tweeted. “Our investment in the development of our world’s youth must not be facilitated by the under-development of some.”
The Girl Scouts also referred to a not-for-profit global organization it belongs to called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which promotes ethical production, including the treatment of workers, writing: “If certain suppliers are not following ethical practices, we expect our bakers and RSPO to take action quickly to rectify those exceptions.”
The Girl Scouts had not responded to repeated requests from the AP for comment about the findings ahead of Tuesday’s story, which found many children working in the palm oil industry do not have access to adequate school or healthcare and that some never learn to read or write. The story detailed how others live in fear of being rounded up by police and tossed in detention centers because they were born on plantations to parents who are working illegally, and how girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Reporters traced child labor to the supply chain of one of the Girl Scout cookies’ bakers, Little Brownie Bakers, owned by the Italian confectionary brand Ferrero, which did not comment on the findings. The other baker and its parent company, Canada-based Weston Foods, did not provide any details about its supply chain, citing proprietary reasons. Both said they were committed to sourcing sustainable palm oil.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The year 2020 was tough for everyone, children and adults alike. Most school-age kids were forced to attend school virtually, at least for part of the year. This, combined with lockdowns, caused screen time use to surge.
More than usual, parents may fear kids aren’t learning well or are being exposed to things they aren’t yet mature enough to handle. On this, their intuition may be correct: 2020 saw an increase in LGBTQ-friendly marketing targeted at kids.
Cartoon Network–whose primary audience is children—recently sent out this tweet:
“Here’s to not only normalizing gender pronouns, but respecting them, too,” Cartoon Network’s tweet reads. “Whether you use he/she/them or something else, we acknowledge and LOVE you!”
In November, I covered similar efforts by two other somewhat kid-friendly brands, Oreo and Tampax.
Earlier this year, the TV channel Nickelodeon encouraged its young audience to accept transgender individuals.
Brands that provide products or entertainment typically reserved for a younger audience have been transparent, honest, and even persuasive that they are using their brand to look appealing and progressive, and to normalize LGBTQ issues, particularly transgender-related ideas.
Twisting language to communicate political groupthink is hardly a new concept, but it has been a hallmark to capitalizing on the LGBTQ movement’s primary goal: Forcing others to accept these individuals to the point where they are not just equal to others but entitled.
I could be wrong here, but it’s also the first time I’ve really seen children targeted as much as adults are, if not more.
It’s not just brands that do this overtly. Production studios do it too. Every year for the past several years, The LGBTQ rights and media-monitoring group GLAAD has released its Studio Responsibility Index, which it says “maps the quantity, quality and diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) characters in films released by eight major motion picture studios during the 2019 calendar year.”
The films were released by major studios such as Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros.
GLAAD says that its report “is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBTQ representation in film.”
Of the films released by major studios in 2019, according to GLAAD, a total of 22 or 18.6% “contained characters identified as LGBTQ,” which the group counts as a “slight improvement.”
Numbers for 2020 aren’t available yet, but based on observations and anecdotes, the year wasn’t too shabby for LGBTQ representation in media and marketing.
It’s safe to say that LGBTQ representation in multimedia–from social media and television to marketing and films—has shown a slow but steady uptick in these ideas percolating, sometimes smack dab in our kids’ faces. This is frustrating on several fronts.
For starters, when other things are marketed to children, such as religion or politics, outrage inevitably ensues. The woke masses cry out that Christianity or conservatism is trying to indoctrinate their children.
The double standard is obvious and you need not be a conservative or a religious person to see it.
All this LGBTQ representation, via brand marketing or entertainment, could make a child think that these ideas are normal, healthy, and exist happily everywhere. This could not be further from the truth.
The transgender youth population is relatively small, although it’s rapidly increasing. In June 2019, a Gallup poll reported that Americans greatly overestimate the size of the gay and transgender population.
The transgender youth population also is at increased risk for depression and suicide, despite its ability to live freely because of nondiscrimination laws, to socially or medically transition, and to force others to use their “correct” pronouns.
Debilitating unhappiness in a free country suggests that the issue may not be bigotry but the application of a failed cure because the illness is misdiagnosed.
In a year when more young people were online, glued to screens more than ever before, it’s discouraging to see the persistence and consistency of brands and entertainment targeting children and youth and encouraging normalization of LGBTQ concepts among those precious resources.
Of all the things the marketing and entertainment industries could do for our children–encourage them to read, play, be kind, respect their elders, reject foul language, or abstain from sex–they instead encourage the twisting of language, the acceptance of a “norm” that harms young people, and the perpetuation of a myth that the LGBTQ community is marginalized.
It’s time for these industries to stick to telling stories, packaging cookies, or making people laugh–and leave our kids alone.
BLOOMINGTON — If you do a Google search of the phrase “dumpster fire,” you will get more than 5 million results. People who ordered from a Bloomington bakery are getting a sweet version of a dumpster fire: decorated cookies.
It all started with a custom order from Grove Street Bakery, 812 E. Grove St.
“A customer asked us if we could do some 2020 theme cookies,” said Parker Boyes, who owns the bakery with his wife, Peggy Finnegan-Boyes. They came up with cookies that looked like the COVID-19 virus, toilet paper and a burning dumpster with “2020” on it.
They thought the “dumpster fire,” in particular, was funny and “we thought other people might like them,” said Boyes.
So, once the Christmas rush was over, they offered them as a pre-order option on Tuesday with pickup on New Year’s Eve. They got orders for 635 cookies.
“I think people like to laugh when they can,” said Finnegan-Boyes.
“It’s good medicine,” added her husband.
The phrase “dumpster fire,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence,” has captured the essence of 2020 and joined “pivot,” “Zoom” and “new normal” in our everyday language.
“I’m glad that we can giggle at the end of it,” said Finnegan-Boyes, who admitted the year has had its ups and downs.
But Finnegan-Boyes said, “In some ways, we’re lucky. We don’t know how it’s supposed to go.”
Before buying the bakery, she had been an art teacher at Metcalf Laboratory School, Illinois State University’s College of Fine Arts and at schools in Texas.
“Teaching was the best job to prepare me for owning a business because it’s different every day and you have to adapt,” she said.
They removed a screen from a sliding front window at the bakery and converted it into a walk-up window.
“We have a great team,” said Boyes, referring to their employees, who were busy taking orders and baking Wednesday. The bakery has a variety of products in addition to cookies, including doughnuts, cinnamon rolls and other pastries.
“We’ve been so lucky because the community is so supportive,” Finnegan-Boyes said. “People have been willing to stand out in the cold and rain and wait.”
Lenore Sobota's most memorable stories of 2020
Lenore Sobota's most memorable stories of 2020
Pantagraph reporter Lenore Sobota’s primary beat is higher education, but she covers a variety of areas. Here are five of her favorite stories from this year.
A team of reporters, editors and photographers worked together to provide an in-depth look at the pandemic’s impact on the Midwest.
My favorite story of higher education adapting to COVID-19 showcased the creativity of professors teaching courses like stage combat.
This march, organized by a diverse group of young adults, included dialogue and prayer as well as words of encouragement from some homes they passed.
I’ve enjoyed introducing readers to outdoor areas in our region, such as Humiston Woods, through “Explore with Lenore.”
Working on Thanksgiving helped me appreciate what I have and also our generous community, with people volunteering to help others.
Contact Lenore Sobota at (309) 820-3240. Follow her on Twitter: @Pg_Sobota
They are two young girls from two very different worlds, linked by a global industry that exploits an army of children.
Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout in rural Tennessee, was a top cookie seller in her troop when she first heard rainforests were being destroyed to make way for ever-expanding palm oil plantations. On one of those plantations a continent away, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruit that makes its way into a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands.
Ima is among the estimated tens of thousands of children often working alongside their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world's most consumed vegetable oil. An Associated Press investigation found most earn little or no pay and are routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazardous conditions. Some never go to school or learn to read and write. Others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking or sexual abuse.
The AP used U.S. Customs records and the most recently published data from producers, traders and buyers to trace the fruits of their labor from the processing mills where palm kernels were crushed to the supply chains of many popular kids' cereals, candies and ice creams sold by Nestle, Unilever, Kellogg's, PepsiCo and many other leading food companies, including Ferrero - one of the two makers of Girl Scout cookies.
Olivia, who earned a badge for selling more than 600 boxes of cookies, had spotted palm oil as an ingredient on the back of one of her packages, but was relieved to see a green tree logo next to the words "certified sustainable." She assumed that meant her Thin Mints and Tagalongs weren't harming rainforests, orangutans or those harvesting the orange-red palm fruit.
But later, the whip-smart 11-year-old saw the word "mixed" on the label and quickly learned it meant exactly what she feared: Sustainable palm oil had been blended with oil from unsustainable sources. To her, that meant the cookies she was peddling were tainted.
Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, Ima led her class in math and dreamed of becoming a doctor. Then her father made her quit school to help meet his high company targets on the palm oil plantation where she was born. Instead of attending fourth grade, she squatted in the unrelenting heat, snatching up the loose kernels littering the ground.
She sometimes worked 12 hours a day, wearing only flip flops and no gloves, crying when the fruit's razor-sharp spikes bloodied her hands or scorpions stung her fingers. The loads she carried went to one of the very mills feeding into the supply chain of Olivia's cookies.
"I am dreaming one day I can go back to school," she told the AP.
Child labor has long been a dark stain on the $65 billion global palm oil industry, identified as a problem by rights groups, the United Nations and the U.S. government.
With little or no access to daycare, some young children in both countries follow their parents to the fields. In some cases, an entire family may earn less in a day than a $5 box of Girl Scout Do-si-dos.
"For 100 years, families have been stuck in a cycle of poverty and they know nothing else than work on a palm oil plantation," said researcher Kartika Manurung, who has published reports detailing labor issues on Indonesian plantations.
The AP's investigation into child labor is part of a broader in-depth look at the industry that also exposed rape, forced labor trafficking and slavery. Reporters crisscrossed Malaysia and Indonesia, speaking to more than 130 current and former workers -- some two dozen of them child laborers - at nearly 25 companies.
Indonesian government officials said they do not know how many children work in the country's massive palm oil industry. 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. Palm oil is one of the largest crops, employing some 16 million people.
In much smaller neighboring Malaysia, a newly released government report estimated more than 33,000 children work in the industry there - nearly half of them between the ages of 5 and 11. That report did not directly address the tens of thousands of so-called "stateless" boys and girls living in the country with parents who came from bordering countries.
An official from Malaysia's Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Nageeb Wahab, head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, called allegations of child labor very serious and urged complaints to be reported to authorities.
Soes Hindharno, an official from Indonesia's Manpower Ministry, said he had not received any complaints about child labor occurring in his own country, but an official from the ministry that oversees women and children's issues labeled it an area of growing concern.
Many producers, Western buyers and banks belong to the 4,000-member Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a global association that provides a green stamp of approval to those committed to dealing with palm oil that's been certified as ethically sourced. The RSPO has a system in place to address grievances, including labor abuse allegations. But of the nearly 100 complaints listed on its case tracker in the last decade in the two Southeast Asian countries, only a handful have mentioned children.
Dan Strechay, the RSPO's global outreach and engagement director, said the association has started working with UNICEF and others to educate members about what constitutes child labor.
Palm oil is contained in roughly half the products on supermarket shelves and in almost three out of every four cosmetic brands, and many kids are introduced to it the day they're born - it's a primary fat in infant formula. As they grow, it's present in many of their favorite foods: It's in their Pop-Tarts and Cap'n Crunch cereal, Oreo cookies, KitKat candy bars, Magnum ice cream, doughnuts and even bubble gum.
Olivia is not the first Girl Scout to raise questions about the way palm oil makes its way into the cookies.More than a decade ago, two girls in a Michigan troop campaigned against its use, leading the Girl Scouts of the USA to join the RSPO and agree to start using sustainable palm oil, adding the green tree logo to its roughly 200 million boxes of cookies, which bring in nearly $800 million annually.
The Girl Scouts did not respond to questions from the AP, directing reporters to the two bakers that make the cookies -- Little Brownie Bakers in Kentucky and ABC Bakers in Virginia. Those companies and their parent corporations, Ferrero and Weston Foods respectively, also did not comment on the findings. But both said they were committed to sourcing only certified sustainable palm oil.
When contacted by the AP, other companies affirmed their support of human rights for all workers, with some noting they rely on their suppliers to meet industry standards and abide by local laws. If evidence of wrongdoing is found, some said they would immediately cut ties with producers.
"We aim to prevent and address the issue of child labor wherever it occurs in our supply chain," said Nestle, maker of KitKat candy bars. And Kellogg's, the parent company of Pop-Tarts, said it was committed to working with suppliers to source "fully traceable palm oil." There was no response from Mondelez, which owns Oreo cookies, or Cap'n Crunch parent company PepsiCo.
Now 14, Olivia, who lives in Jonesborough, Tennessee, has started a petition to get palm oil removed from Girl Scout cookies. And she's stopped selling them.
"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."
Subway just got new vegan options. Vegan chicken subs and double chocolate cookies are now on the menu. The only catch? They’re currently only available at Subway locations in the UK and Ireland.
Subway launched the new menu options on December 30—just in time for Veganuary. According to the sandwich chain, the T.L.C. (Tastes Like Chicken) Sub is “chicken-y in taste and chicken-less in contents.”
The T.L.C. Sub features soy-based protein made with a recipe that replicates the chain’s roast chicken breast strips. The sandwich—available as a 6-inch or Footlong Sub—also includes Violife vegan cheese and can be ordered as a salad or wrap.
Subway made the sandwich with “plant-lovers and flexitarians.” In a press release, Subway said the new vegan option was the result of more than ten years of development. According to the company, the sub “tastes so much like the real thing that even meat-lovers should give it a try.”
And what’s a meal without dessert? The chain also expanded its cookie range with its first vegan cookie offering: the Vegan Double Choc Cookie. The vegan cookie replicates the flavor of the chain’s Double Chocolate Cookie.
“Our new plant-based T.L.C. Sub will delight both our vegan and non-vegan fans,” Angelina Gosal, the head of marketing of Subway UK and Ireland said. “With our new additions, we now have one of the biggest and tastiest plant-based menus on the high street.”
Subway UK first trialed vegan options earlier this year. | Image / Subway
Subway’s Vegan Options
A meatless chicken sub sandwich isn’t the first vegan option to hit Subway’s menu.
Subway UK added a vegan meatball sub to its permanent menu in March 2020. This followed a successful trial at select Birmingham and Manchester locations. The sandwich features vegan meatballs smothered in marinara sauce and topped with dairy-free cheese.
Subway also trialed Beyond Meatball Marinara Subs at more than 600 locations in the U.S. and Canada in 2019. In a statement, Ethan Brown—the founder and CEO of Beyond Meat—said the trial marked the start of a “long-term partnership” with the fast-food chain.
In January 2020, Subway UK added Vegan Cheese Toasted Bites to the menu. Customers can order the plant-based bites vegan by requesting dairy-free cheese. And in the summer, Subway UK launched a meaty vegan garlic wrap. The sandwich features a vegan patty and dairy-free garlic aioli.
Subway Brazil also has vegan options. Locations throughout the country added a 100 percent plant-based sandwich to the menu. Called the “Sub Veg,” the sandwich features soy-based protein. It also includes creamy, dairy-free cheddar cheese, veggies, and barbecue sauce between slices of white Italian bread.
They are two young girls from two very different worlds, linked by a global industry that exploits an army of children.
Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout in rural Tennessee, was a top cookie seller in her troop when she first heard rainforests were being destroyed to make way for ever-expanding palm oil plantations. On one of those plantations a continent away, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruit that makes its way into a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands.
Ima is among the estimated tens of thousands of children working alongside their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world’s most consumed vegetable oil. An Associated Press investigation found most earn little or no pay and are routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and other dangerous conditions. Some never go to school or learn to read and write. Others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking or sexual abuse. Many live in limbo with no citizenship and fear being swept up in police raids and thrown into detention.
The AP used U.S. Customs records and the most recently published data from producers, traders and buyers to trace the fruits of their labor from the processing mills where palm kernels were crushed to the supply chains of many popular kids’ cereals, candies and ice creams sold by Nestle, Unilever, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo and many other leading food companies, including Ferrero – one of the two makers of Girl Scout cookies.
Olivia, who earned a badge for selling more than 600 boxes of cookies, had spotted palm oil as an ingredient on the back of one of her packages but was relieved to see a green tree logo next to the words “certified sustainable.” She assumed that meant her Thin Mints and Tagalongs weren’t harming rainforests, orangutans or those harvesting the orange-red palm fruit.
But later, the whip-smart 11-year-old saw the word “mixed” in all caps on the label and turned to the internet, quickly learning that it meant exactly what she feared: Sustainable palm oil had been blended with oil from unsustainable sources. To her, that meant the cookies she was peddling were tainted.
Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, Ima led her class in math and dreamed of becoming a doctor. Then one day her father made her quit school because he needed help meeting the high company targets on the palm oil plantation where she was born. Instead of attending fourth grade, she squatted in the unrelenting heat, snatching up the loose kernels littering the ground and knowing if she missed even one, her family’s pay would be cut.
She sometimes worked 12 hours a day, wearing only flip flops and no gloves, crying when the fruit’s razor-sharp spikes bloodied her hands or when scorpions stung her fingers. The loads she carried, sometimes so heavy she would lose her footing, went to one of the very mills feeding into the supply chain of Olivia’s cookies.
“I am dreaming one day I can go back to school,” she told the AP, tears rolling down her cheeks.
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 rights groups, the United Nations and the U.S. government.
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.
In some cases, an entire family may earn less in a day than a $5 box of Girl Scout Do-si-dos.
“For 100 years, families have been stuck in a cycle of poverty and they know nothing else than work on a palm oil plantation,” said Kartika Manurung, who has published reports detailing labor issues on Indonesian plantations. “When I … ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up, some of the girls say, ‘I want to be the wife of a palm oil worker.’”
The AP’s investigation into child labor is part of a broader in-depth look at the industry that also exposed rape, forced labor, trafficking and slavery. Reporters crisscrossed Malaysia and Indonesia, speaking to more than 130 current and former workers – some two dozen of them child laborers – at nearly 25 companies. Their locations are not being disclosed and only partial names or nicknames are being used due to fears of retribution.
The AP found children working on plantations and corroborated accounts of abuse, whenever possible, by reviewing police reports and legal documents. Reporters also interviewed more than 100 activists, teachers, union leaders, government officials, researchers, lawyers and clergy, including some who helped victims of trafficking or sexual assault.
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. Palm oil is one of the largest crops, employing some 16 million people.
In much smaller neighboring Malaysia, a newly released government report estimated more than 33,000 children work in the industry there, many under hazardous conditions – with nearly half of them between the ages of 5 and 11. The study was conducted in 2018 after the country was slammed by the U.S. government over the use of child labor, and it did not directly address the large number of migrant children without documents hidden on many plantations in its eastern states, some of whom have never seen the inside of a classroom.
Many producers, Western buyers and banks belong to the 4,000-member Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a global association 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.
The RSPO has a system in place to address grievances, including labor abuse allegations. But of the nearly 100 complaints listed on its case tracker for the two Southeast Asian countries in the last decade, only a handful have mentioned children.
“It is an issue, and we know it’s an issue,” said Dan Strechay, the RSPO’s global outreach and engagement director, adding that the association has started working with UNICEF and others to educate members about what constitutes child labor.
Strechay said many parents in Indonesia and Malaysia believe it’s the “cultural norm” for their kids to work alongside family members, even if it means pulling them out of school. “And that’s not OK,” he said.
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.
And in a world where more and more consumers are demanding to know the provenance of the raw materials in the products they purchase, many companies are quick to issue assurances that they are committed to “sustainable” sourcing. But supply chains often are murky – especially in the palm oil industry – and developing countries that produce commodities in large volumes cheaply often do so by disregarding the environment and minimizing labor costs.
Most people take words like “organic,” “fair trade” and “sustainable” at face value. But not Olivia. She became increasingly worried about palm oil, rifling through the kitchen cupboards in her family’s century-old farmhouse in Jonesborough, Tennessee, to inspect the ingredients printed on cans and wrappers. Then she began digging through her shampoos and lotions, trying to make sense of the scientific-sounding names she saw there.
Now 14, Olivia has fired letters off to the head of Girl Scouts of the USA, demanding answers about how the palm oil is sourced for the organization’s cookies. She’s started an online petition to get it removed. And she and some other members of Troop 543 have stopped selling them.
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.
“I thought Girl Scouts was supposed to be about making the world a better place,” Olivia said. “But this isn’t at all making the world better.”
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Many kids are introduced to palm oil soon after they’re born – it’s a primary fat in infant formula. And as they grow, it’s present in many of their favorite foods: It’s in their Pop-Tarts and Cap’n Crunch cereal, Oreo cookies, KitKat candy bars, Magnum ice cream, doughnuts and even bubble gum.
“Let them enjoy it,” said Abang, a skinny 14-year-old who dropped out of the fifth grade to help his father on an Indonesian plantation and has never tasted ice cream. He has accepted his own fate, but still dreams of a better future for his little brother.
“Let me work, just me, helping my father,” Abang said. “I want my brother to go back to school. … I don’t want him in the same difficult situation like me.”
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.
Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil producer and, with a population of 270 million, there is no shortage of strong backs. Many laborers migrate from the poorest corners of the country to take jobs that others shun, often bringing their wives and children as helpers in order to meet impossibly high daily quotas.
Others have been living on the same plantations for generations, creating a built-in workforce – when one harvester retires or dies, another in the family takes his place to hold onto company-subsidized housing, which often is a dilapidated shack with no running water and sometimes only limited electricity.
It’s a cycle that 15-year-old Jo was trying to break. Even though he had to help his family in the fields each day, heaving palm fruits high over his head and lobbing them onto trucks, his parents let him keep $6 a month to cover school fees so he could attend morning classes.
“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?”
But for many migrant children in neighboring Malaysia – which relies almost entirely on foreign workers to fill constant labor shortages – the hurdles to a brighter life seem insurmountable.
Male harvesters technically are not allowed to bring their families to plantations on Borneo island, which is shared by both countries. So children often follow behind, sometimes traveling alone on illicit smugglers’ routes known as “jalan tikus,” or rat roads. The perilous border crossings to the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak can take place at night, either on foot across winding jungle paths or in packed speed boats racing without lights, sometimes colliding or capsizing in the dark.
An official estimate says 80,000 children of illegal migrants, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, are living in Sabah alone, but some rights groups say the true number could be nearly double that. Without birth certificates and with no path to citizenship, they are essentially stateless – denied access to even the most basic rights, and at high risk of exploitation.
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 labor 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.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Nageeb Wahab, head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, a government-supported umbrella group, called allegations of child labor very serious and urged complaints to be reported to authorities.
Children of migrant parents grow up living in fear they will be separated from their families. They try to remain invisible to avoid attracting the ever-watchful eyes of police, with some keeping backpacks with supplies ready in case they need to flee their houses and sleep in the jungle to avoid raids.
Many never leave their guarded plantations, some so remote that workers must climb hills to search for a phone signal. And for those who dare to go out, trouble can come quickly.
Alex was 12 when he began working 10 hours a day on a small plantation with his father, hoisting fruits so heavy his aching muscles kept him awake at night. One day, he decided to sneak off to visit his favorite aunt in a nearby village. With no passport, Alex said authorities quickly found him and carted him off to a crowded immigration detention center where he was held for a month.
“There were hundreds of other people there, some my age, and also younger children, mostly with their mothers,” he said. “I was very afraid and kept thinking about how worried my mother and father must be. It made it hard to even eat or drink.”
But the biggest obstacles faced by Alex and other child workers in the two countries are lack of access to adequate, affordable education and medical care.
Some companies in Indonesia provide rudimentary elementary schooling on plantations, but children who want to continue their studies may find they have to travel too far on poor roads or that they can’t afford it. In Malaysia, the problem is even bigger: Without legal documents, tens of thousands of kids are not allowed to go to government schools at all.
It’s such an extensive problem that Indonesia has set up learning centers to help some of its children on plantations in the neighboring 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.
“Why aren’t companies playing a role in setting up schools in collaboration with the government?” asked Glorene Das, executive director of Tenaganita, a Malaysian nonprofit group concentrating on migrant issues for more than two decades. “Why are they encouraging the children to work instead?”
Medical care also is woeful, with experts saying poor nutrition and daily exposure to toxic chemicals are undermining child laborers’ health and development. Many Indonesian plantations have their own basic clinics, but access may be available only to full-time workers. Travel to a private doctor or hospital can take hours, and most families cannot afford outside care. Migrant children without documents in Malaysia have no right to health care and often are too scared to seek medical help in villages or cities – even in life-threatening emergencies.
Many young palm oil workers also have little understanding about reproductive health. Girls working on remote plantations are vulnerable to sexual abuse, and teen pregnancies and marriages are common.
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.
Many children do not have the option to ever leave. They are born on plantations, work there and sometimes die there. Overgrown headstones and crosses marking graves in crude cemeteries are found on some plantations near the towering palm trees.
Others, like 48-year-old Anna’s husband, are buried in community graveyards along the Indonesian and Malaysian border. A month after the palm oil harvester’s death, Anna lovingly tended his plot at the Christian site in Sabah, crammed with the bodies of hundreds of other migrants.
She said her son, whose own newborn baby was buried in the adjacent grave, had inherited his father’s job. He is the family’s main breadwinner now.
The cycle continues.
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Olivia is not the first Girl Scout to raise questions about the way palm oil makes its way into the beloved American cookies.
More than a decade ago, two girls in a Michigan troop stopped selling S’mores and other seasonal favorites because they worried palm oil’s expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia was destroying rainforests and killing endangered animals like orangutans.
After they campaigned for several years, the Girl Scouts of the USA became an affiliate member of the RSPO and agreed to start using sustainable palm oil, adding the green tree logo to its roughly 200 million boxes of cookies, which bring in nearly $800 million annually.
The RSPO was created with the best of intentions and it attempts to factor in the interests of a wide array of groups, including environmental organizations, industry leaders and banks. Its mission was not to flip a switch overnight, but to encourage the mammoth palm oil industry to evolve after years of breakneck growth and little outside oversight.
Still, for many food and cosmetic companies facing increased pressure from conscientious consumers, the association’s stamp of approval has become the go-to answer when questions are raised about their commitments to sustainability.
Monitoring the millions of workers hidden beneath palms covering an area equal to roughly the size of New Zealand, however, is next to impossible.
Some women and children on remote, sprawling plantations told the AP and labor rights groups that they are ordered to hide or stay home when sustainability auditors visit. They said only the optimal, easiest-to-reach parts of a plantation are typically showcased, with poor living and working conditions in distant areas hidden from outside eyes.
“The RSPO promises sustainable palm oil. But it doesn’t mean that that palm oil is free of child labor or other abuses,” said Robin Averbeck of the Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has found pervasive problems on plantations, including those certified as sustainable. “It has simply become a tool for greenwashing.”
When contacted by the AP, companies reaffirmed their support of human rights for all workers, with some noting they rely on their suppliers to meet industry standards and abide by local laws. If evidence of wrongdoing is found, some said they would immediately cut ties with producers.
“We aim to prevent and address the issue of child labor 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.” There was no response from Mondelez, which owns Oreo cookies, or Cap’n Crunch parent company PepsiCo.
Consumers have their own challenges in trying to buy responsibly. Those, like Olivia, who want to make sense of where their palm oil really comes from often find themselves confused, since the dense terms used to explain what makes palm oil sustainable can sometimes raise even more questions.
Take Girls Scout cookies, for instance, which are made by two different U.S. bakers
Boxes from both are stamped with green palm logos. The maker of Olivia’s cookies, Little Brownie Bakers in Kentucky, has the word “mixed” beside the tree, meaning as little as 1 percent of the palm oil might be certified sustainable. ABC Bakers in Virginia says “credits,” which means money is going toward promoting sustainable production.
The bakers’ parent companies – Italian confectionary brand Ferrero and Canadian-based Weston Foods – would not comment on the issue of child labor, but both said they were committed to sourcing only certified sustainable palm oil.
Weston Foods, which owns ABC Bakers, would not provide any information about its palm oil suppliers, citing proprietary reasons, so the AP could not determine if its supply chain was tainted.
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.
They have banned products touted as “palm oil-free” from supermarket shelves and created slogans calling the crop “God’s gift.” And when students at an international school in Malaysia were criticized last year for staging a play questioning the industry’s effect on the environment, school administrators responded with an apology.
Back in Indonesia, Ima could give a very different classroom presentation about palm oil, but she has no chance. She continues to toil full time on the plantation alongside her family, even though her mother had promised she eventually could resume her studies.
“Sometimes my friends ask me, ‘Why did you drop out? Why are you not at school?’” Ima said, her resentment readily apparent. “‘Because I have to help my father. If you want to replace me and help my father, then I will go to school. How about that?’”
After learning about Ima, Olivia is even more determined to fight on. She sent letters to her customers explaining her reasons for no longer selling Girl Scout cookies, and many responded by donating money to her Southern Appalachian troop to show support.
Now, Olivia is asking Girl Scouts across the country to band with her, saying, “The cookies deceive a lot of people. They think it’s sustainable, but it isn’t.
“I’m not just some little girl who can’t do anything about this,” she says. “Children can make change in the world. And we’re going to.”
