Planet Palm

How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything - and Endangered the World

By: Jocelyn C. Zuckerman

Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt

A groundbreaking global investigation into the industry ravaging the environment and global health - from the James Beard Award-winning journalist.

Over the past few decades, palm oil has seeped into every corner of our lives. Worldwide, palm-oil production has nearly doubled in just the last decade: Oil-palm plantations now cover an area nearly the size of New Zealand, and some form of the commodity lurks in half the products on US grocery shelves. But the palm-oil revolution has been built on stolen land and slave labor; it's swept away cultures and so devastated the landscapes of Southeast Asia that iconic animals now teeter on the brink of extinction. Fires lit to clear the way for plantations spew carbon emissions to rival those of industrialized nations.

James Beard Award-winning journalist Jocelyn C. Zuckerman spent years traveling the globe, from Liberia to Indonesia, India to Brazil, reporting on the human and environmental impacts of this poorly understood plant. The result is Planet Palm, a riveting account blending history, science, politics, and food as seen through the people whose lives have been upended by this hidden ingredient. This groundbreaking work of first-rate journalism compels us to examine the connections between the choices we make at the grocery store and a planet under siege.

©2021 Jocelyn C. Zuckerman (P)2021 Tantor

Outstanding Investigative Journalism

Excellent investigation of the oil palm industry, highly recommended for anyone concerned with deforestation, biodiversitty, equity.

Important story by flawed person

I think this is a vibrant story burdened by a white woman narrator who thinks I not only care about her and her fatphobic bias, but also that I care wether she learns or not. It exactly what’s wrong with liberalism. The implementation of a ceiling on understanding and the perspective of boring whiteness only detract

I'm Glad I Know About This Now

The prose of this book isn't the flowiest. But there's no denying that it explores something about the human psyche that should be within my consciousness. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's fear and anger inducing. But it's a necessary book to exist.