Planet Palm, Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
Planet Palm, Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
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Planet Palm
How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything - and Endangered the World

Author: Jocelyn C. Zuckerman

Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt

Unabridged: 7 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/15/2021


Synopsis

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.

About Jocelyn C. Zuckerman

Jocelyn C. Zuckerman is the former deputy editor of Gourmet, former articles editor of OnEarth, and the former executive editor of Whole Living. Her stories have appeared in Audubon, Fast Company, the American Prospect, Vogue, and other publications. She is the recipient of a James Beard Journalism Award for Feature Writing. She lives in Brooklyn.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lauren on August 16, 2021

This is an excellent, comprehensive piece of reporting on one of the world's biggest problems: palm oil. Many environmentally-conscious consumers know about this evil crop, including how it has led to or been the cause of: • massive (often illegal) deforestation in the world's most carbon-rich and bi......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on March 26, 2021

Planet Palm is one of those books which rips an important ingredient of our food and energy supply. It does a pretty good job describing the challenges that come with the significant increase of the supply side, including indentured labor (without using that term) or mono culture and deforestation.......more

Goodreads review by Arya on September 01, 2021

As a part of my work concerns land use and forestry in Indonesia, I was hoping to enjoy this book. Instead, I could barely penetrate it to feel even remotely immersed, as if I kept getting stuck on some invisible film of oil floating on the book's body of water. It read more like a travelogue than a......more

Goodreads review by Marc on September 10, 2021

Jocelyn takes you on a history and adventures journey. Starting with land grabbing and the history of the Palm Oil trade. You can really see how much research and travel that is behind a book like this. Palm Oil is literary in everything today, from food to shampoo and creating deforestation and bio......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on March 07, 2021

Eye Opening, Yet Problematic Itself. This is a well documented work - roughly 30% of the text was bibliography, even if much of it wasn't actually referenced in the text of the advance reader copy I read. (Perhaps that will be corrected before actual publication, so if you're reading a fully publish......more