AP traces child labor from Southeast Asia’s palm oil fields to major brands, Girl Scout cookies
By Robin McDowell, Margie Mason, Binsar Bakkara, Allen Breed and Mark Humphrey
Global investigations reporters Robin McDowell and Margie Mason have long had a commitment to exposing labor abuse in global supply chains, notably their groundbreaking work on slavery in the seafood industry that led to the freeing of more than 2,000 fishermen six years ago.
This time, joined by Indonesia-based photographer Binsar Bakkara, video journalist Allen Breed in North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee, photographer Mark Humphrey, McDowell and Mason looked at another little-noticed group of workers in Asia: children.
The team delved again into the palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the final piece of an AP series around palm oil abuses,they traced the fruits of the labor to the supply chains of the makers of popular cereals,candies and ice creams,including KitKats,Oreos, Magnum and Cap’n Crunch. They also linked the oil to that most American treat: Girl Scout cookies.
Their reporting found that an estimated tens of thousands of children toil in the palm fields,some kept out of school and forced to work for free or for little pay,and routinely exposed to dangerous chemicals. Others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking or sexual abuse.
The story also showed how generations are doomed to know no other life than scraping by on a palm oil plantation.
As the reporters wrote: “In some cases, an entire family may earn less in a day than a $5 box of Girl Scout Do-si-dos.”
A child collects palm kernels from the ground on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Nov. 13, 2017. The AP traced the fruits of this labor to the supply chains of popular kids’ cereals, candies and ice creams sold by Nestle, Unilever, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo and many other leading food companies, including one of the two makers of Girl Scout cookies. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
A child carries palm kernels collected from the ground on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Nov. 13, 2017. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
Ima, a girl who works to help her parents on a palm oil plantation, poses for a portrait in Sumatra, Indonesia, 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 on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia, Nov. 13, 2017. Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil producer. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
A young girl helps her parents work on a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia, Dec. 10, 2018. Many children gather loose kernels and clear brush from the trees with machetes, never learning to read or write. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
A child helps her parents at work on a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia, 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
A child helps her parents at work on a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia, Dec. 10, 2018. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
Students of a boarding school rest in their dormitory in North Kalimantan, Indonesia, 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, Dec. 6, 2018. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
Crosses stand in a cemetery in Tawau, Malaysia, Dec. 9, 2018, where the grandchild and husband of Anna, 45, a migrant worker from Indonesia, are buried. Anna 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 primary breadwinner. – AP Photo / Binsar Bakkara
Bakkara provided photos of child laborers from Indonesia and Malaysia,while Humphrey and Breed contributed from the United States, including Humphrey’s photos of a Girl Scout in rural Tennessee.
The compelling framing of the story — through the eyes of a young girl in the fields in Indonesia and the Tennessee Girl Scout campaigning to have palm oil removed from the cookies — resonated with readers.
Olivia Chaffin, 14, stands for a portrait with her Girl Scout sash in Jonesborough, Tenn., Nov. 1, 2020. Chaffin, 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
On Nov. 1, 2020, Olivia Chaffin, 14, displays badges 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 makes photographs in a wooded area as she works on a Girl Scout photography merit badge in Jonesborough, Tenn., Nov. 1, 2020. – 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., Nov. 1, 2020. – AP Photo / Mark Humphrey
In Jonesborough, Tenn., Nov. 1, 2020, Olivia Chaffin displays a 2017 response she received from the chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts to her concerns over palm oil being used in Girl Scout Cookies. Chaffin 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, center, stands for a portrait with her parents, Doug, left, and Kim Chaffin, at their home in Jonesborough, Tenn., Nov. 1, 2020. – AP Photo / Mark Humphrey
The story scored remarkably high reader engagement and racked up almost 75,000 pageviews on its first day during the slow holiday period,with much of the traffic driven by Twitter and Facebook. It continued to gain tens of thousands of views in the coming days.
The Girl Scouts initially had no comment despite repeated attempts,but the story caught fire on Twitter, goading the organization to send tweets the day after publication calling on the two companies that bake its cookies to act quickly to address any potential abuses linked to the palm oil in their supply chains.
Palm oil labor issues extend far beyond Girl Scout cookies and child labor. We found rape,trafficking,forced labor,even slavery involving men, women and kids. And we traced it to MANY big companies’ supply chains. See all 3 stories here: https://t.co/e7XfDQahTP
In mid-December,as a result of earlier reporting by McDowell and Mason,25 Democratic lawmakers from the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee cited AP’s investigation in a letter calling for the government to come down harder on the industry in Malaysia and Indonesia,asking U.S. Customs and Border Protection if it had considered a blanket ban on imports from those countries.
For shedding unprecedented light on child labor in Southeast Asia’s palm oil fields,and linking the abusive practice to major consumer brands,McDowell,Mason,Bakkara, Breed and Humphrey share AP’s Best of the Week honors for the week of Dec. 28.
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