The season for Girl Scout cookies officially begins on December 20th, but most of us are too wrapped up in the holidays to notice. For many people, this week will be the first time they encounter the annual onslaught of delicious, delicious Girl Scout cookies.

Girl Scout cookies were first introduced in 1917, when Girl Scouts and their mothers baked cookies in their own homes and sold them to help support the troops of World War I. In 1922, the national Girl Scout magazine The American Girl published a cookie recipe that could be used for fundraising. (That original recipe, for what looks like a basic sugar cookie, can be found here, on the Girl Scout Cookie website.)

The next step towards worldwide domination happened in the late 1930s, when the Girl Scouts organization began contracting with local bakers to produce cookies for sale. It was not until the late 1970s that the national distribution system began to form, and the list of bakeries producing the cookies was shortened to four. Today, three licensed bakers produce up to eight cookie varieties every year (the list always includes Thin Mint, Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Shortbread).

Last April, an intrepid pair of Michigan Girl Scouts took a stand against the cookies. They had been working on a project researching the endangered orangutans of Indonesia for their Bronze Award project. In the course of their research, they learned that the harvest of palm oil - a key ingredient in Girl Scout Cookies - was one of the primary causes of deforestation in the orangutans' habitat.

Palm oil isn't just a concern for Indonesian orangutans, of course. It is one of the two vegetable oils which is so high in saturated fat that it is semi solid at room temperature. (Coconut oil is the other.) The World Health Organization feels that palm oil significantly increases your risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Even aside from the health risks of palm oil (and would anyone be surprised to learn that a box of cookies is a health risk?) there is a lot of other controversy which swirls around Girl Scout Cookies every year. Many people feel that it is inappropriate for an organization geared towards children to support itself by selling cookies, considering that childhood obesity has reached the status of an epidemic.

Personally, I can't help but feel that that, although selling Girl Scout Cookies is said to teach Girl Scouts "confidence," it's inappropriate for any organization to support itself by requiring its youngest members to hustle the streets for cash. (Maybe not "inappropriate" so much as "Dickensian.") Maybe I am just bitter because I was so lousy at selling them myself, back in the day. (In fact, I quit Girl Scouts not long after my first cookie season. I guess I couldn't hack it.)

If you would prefer to make your own, palm oil-free Girl Scout cookies, the internet is rife with copycat recipes. (Here are some recipes for copycat Thin Mints, Shortbread cookies, and Samoas, just to get you started.)