Virtual Event with Jocelyn Zuckerman

Jocelyn C. Zuckerman is a frequent FERN contributor the former deputy editor of Gourmet, articles editor of OnEarth, and executive editor of Modern Farmer. An alumna of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a former fellow with the Washington, DC–based Alicia Patterson Foundation, she has written for Fast Company, Audubon, The American Prospect, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, with her husband and two children. 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 dozen years: oil-palm plantations now cover an area almost the size of New Zealand. 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. In Planet Palm, Jocelyn Zuckerman blends history, science, politics, and food to tell the stories of the people whose lives have been upended by this hidden ingredient. The book compels us to examine the connections between the choices we make at the grocery store and a planet under siege.