Three Delicious Girl Scout Cookie Facts

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This week marks the Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary. As a tip of our caps, here are three delicious bits about their cookies.

You Could Play Football in the Ovens
Every year, Girl Scouts sell about 200 million boxes of snacks during winter, a.k.a. Girl Scout Cookie Selling Season. This means that, for the first quarter of each year, Girl Scouts are the top-selling cookie brand in the United States. Thin Mints are the most popular variety, accounting for one-quarter of sales. To keep up with demand, almost 2 million cookies are baked each day in ovens the length of a football field.

Honey, the Economy Shrunk the Cookies
In 2009, the cost of baking Girl Scout cookies rose. Prices for flour went up more than 30 percent; baking oil, 40 percent; and cocoa, 20 percent. But instead of raising the price of the cookies, the Girl Scouts chose to go on a portion-control diet. The ingredients didn’t change, but the Lemon Chalet Cremes got smaller. The organization also started putting fewer Thin Mints, Do-si-dos, and Tagalongs in each box.

No More Blood-for-Oil Cookies!

In March 2011, two Girl Scouts, Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, went on strike because Girl Scout Cookies are loaded with palm oil from Southeast Asia. Environmentalists claim harvesting palms damages the habitats of orangutans and other endangered species. The girls won’t start selling again until Girl Scouts of America changes its recipes. So far, the club has refused to budge.