Girl Guide Cookies and the GMO Controversy

Have you heard the news?:

A Victoria Girl Guide and her Mother have started a campaign to boycott Girl Guide Cookies until they remove the GMO ingredients from the cookies.

Here is what National had to say about it.   Dare says that they conform to Canadian Standards.   Is this fight really not then with the Canadian Standards, should the petition not be to the Government of Canada to limit the use of GMO ingredients in our products?

I just heard about this issue last weekend, someone had seen 1 article about it and we had a discussion about how we felt about it.    Today I got an email in my mailbox from a worried Guide leader who had taken her girls out cookie selling and one girl came back in tears having been yelled at for selling poison.   When I logged into my girl guide account I found a whole string of emails about this same issue.

here is what I have to say about it:

As a long time Girl Guide Member I wanted to put in my two cents on this story, When we sell girl guide cookies, we are in fact selling cookies not dinner, not health food but cookies.

While I whole heartedly agree that eating ALL NON GMO would be amazing we have to be realistic, that is not the state of the world today. We can (and maybe should) petition Dare to change their cookies just like Christie should change oreos and Dads should change their goodie rings. At this point in time it is difficult to throw a rock a not hit a food that has a GMO product in it…in fact not just foods but also products such as body lotion, shampoo and even soaps.

By boycotting Girl Guide Cookies instead of petitioning Canada to change its laws around GMO products or  Dare to change all their products you are doing nothing but hurting the Girls involved in Girl Guides. To insinuate that by selling these cookies girls are not living up to the Guiding promise and law is ridiculous.

We do teach the girls about healthy living and healthy choices and we have pushed against the wheels of the machine to have the cookies made more healthy, but in the end the reality is if we go strictly organic, with a smaller producer those boxes of cookies will go from $5.00 a box to $16.00 a box if we hope to gain any profit for the girls to actually have program and go to camp.

When you buy a box of cookies from girl guides you are not really buying cookies, you are supporting young girls as they go away to camp and learned to become empowered members of society, just like this young girl who has taken an interested in non GMO foods.

At this time, this is our only source of fundraising and we appreciate the people who will continue to help support the girls through the sale of girl guide cookies.

I like what this article had to say - "This year, I will still buy the cookies my colleague brings in to the office, but I probably won’t eat them — if they contain GMOs. Maybe next year I’ll be able to eat them again.

I urge you to show your support for the Girl Guides, and for a better world"  

I think most people do not understand what Cookie Selling means to the girls in Girl Guides.  Here is a poster that tells all about it:

I have to let you know....its not like the share that comes from each carton of cookies is huge either!   most of the money goes directly to the Unit at $10 to 11 per case (so each girl raises a total of $44 per year) to cover all the things mentioned above.   as it goes up the levels it is way smaller....Area only keeps $0.75 (thats 75 cents folks) to cover all the other stuff!   the major portion of the rest of the money goes to Dare to cover the cost of making the cookies.

Tomorrow is International Day of the Girl (IDG) a day to commemorate and support girls' rights, and to end global gender inequality.  This initiative was created to bring world focus to the challenges that girls face in their everyday lives, and to encourage governments and communities to address these challenges. As a girl-serving organization and a member of the largest voluntary movement for girls and women worldwide, Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) felt compelled to help make this day a reality.

  

Lets focus on this rather than trashing the reputation of the Girl Guides or trying to halt the one and only method of fundraising these girls have.

I appreciate each and every one of you that has bought cookies in the past to support our desire to help raise generations of women who are self sustaining, community oriented and empowered to be all that they can be!   

If you would like to buy cookies and haven't yet seen one of our adorable girls out selling please see the cookie map - and go find some cookies!  Remember in reality you are supporting the girls and in return they give you a box of cookies!   

Thanks, 

Tara