Finalist, Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
In the tradition of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, 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 U.S. 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.
