This Weird Fruit Is In Absolutely Everything

Rainforest Action Network has been campaigning for No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policy for years, and right now they have their sights set on Mondelēz, the corporation that makes Oreos and also continues to use conflict palm oil. If you want to join RAN’s campaign, you can sign their Mondelēz petition: https://act.ran.org/page/84361/petiti...

Thank you to Solar Punk Farms for letting us shoot at their beautiful redwood grove and farm. They’re a queer-run regenerative farm and climate education space and you should absolutely check them out: https://www.solarpunkfarms.com/ OR   / solarpunkfarms  

Special thanks to Rainforest Action Network for their expertise, help, and support on this episode: https://www.ran.org/

Want to read the exact same book we read for research on this episode? It’s called Planet Palm: How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything – And Endangered the World, it’s written by Jocelyn C Zuckerman, and you could buy it here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/planet-p...

WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN GOOD MERCH? Check out:

• TS Designs (high-quality, responsible apparel from the Carolinas): https://tsdesigns.com/

• Rustek (plastic-free hats from Canada/Oregon): https://www.rustek.co/

• Ethix Merch (our knowledgeable and thoughtful merch partner): https://ethixmerch.com/

Sources & Citations

Citations reference first appearance, without repeating for subsequent usage:

• Smithsonian Magazine: The World’s Oldest Forest Has 385-Million-Year-Old Tree Roots (2019)

• Our World in Data: Deforestation and Forest Loss (2021, updated 2024)

• World Resources Institute: Fires Drove Record-breaking Tropical Forest Loss in 2024 (2025)

• Global Witness: Products in US supermarkets linked to deforestation of tropical forests (2024)

• Natural History Museum: Palm oil: The controversial ingredient that’s in nearly everything (accessed 2025)

• Oregon Zoo: 5 things you should know about palm oil (2020)

• World Wildlife Fund: 8 Things to Know About Palm Oil (accessed 2025)

• The Guardian: How the world got hooked on palm oil (2019)

• World Wildlife Fund: Which Everyday Products Contain Palm Oil? (accessed 2025)

• Oil Palm is the World’s Most Productive Vegetable Oil (based on 2018 European Commission Report)

• Unilever: 1900 – 1950 – Joining forces, Unilever comes to life (accessed 2025)

• Index Mundi: United States Palm Oil Imports by Year (accessed 2025)

• Mayo Clinic: Trans fat is double trouble for heart health (2025)

• The American Presidency Project: Fact Sheet: Twenty in Ten: Reducing America’s Dependence on Oil (2007)

• US Department of Energy: Renewable Fuel Standard (accessed 2025)

• Official Journal of the European Union: DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 (2009)

• The Conversation: How palm oil became the world’s most hated, most used fat source (2021)

• Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries: Palm Oil Production (Ton) Bar Chart Race (accessed 2025)

• The New York Times: Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe. (2018)

• The New York Times: Meet Peat, the Unsung Hero of Carbon Capture (2022)

• World Resources Institute: Destruction of Tropical Peatland Is an Overlooked Source of Emissions (2016)

• World Resources Institute: Forests Absorb Twice As Much Carbon As They Emit Each Year (2021)

• The Great Projects: The Evolution of the Orangutan (2017)

• The New York Times: Revealing Behavior in “Orangutan Heaven and Human Hell” (2005)

• Greenpeace: Amazon rainforest fires 2022: Facts, causes, and climate impacts (2022)

• Associated Press: Palm oil labor abuses linked to world’s top brands, banks (2020)

• Reuters: Slaves to deforestation: Labor abuses fuel Brazil’s Amazon destruction (2021)

• The Guardian: Murder of two journalists leads to arrest of Indonesian palm oil boss (2019)

• ScienceDirect: Ratcheting up private standards by exploiting coopetition: The curious case of RSPO’s adoption of zero-deforestation criteria (2024)

• RSPO: RSPO Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production (2007)

• RSPO: Board of Governors (accessed 2025)

• The New York Times: Defining “Sustainable” Palm Oil Production (2009)

• Friends of the Earth Europe: RSPO: Stop destructive Palm Oil (2012)

• EIA: Who Watches the Watchmen? Auditors and the breakdown of oversight in the RSPA (2015)

• Jocelyn C. Zuckerman: Planet Palm: How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything – And Endangered the World (2021)

• Milieu Defense: Policy, practice, pride and prejudice: Review of legal, environmental and social practices of oil palm plantation companies of the Wilmar Group in Sambas District, West Kalimantan (Indonesia) (2007)

• World Resources Institute: Indonesia’s Ambitious Forest Moratorium Moves Forward (2011)

• Brooking’s: Indonesia’s Green Prosperity (2011)

• Letter of Intent between the Government of the Kingdom of Norway and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia on "Cooperation on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation" (2010)

• Wilmar International Limited: No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation Policy (2013, updated 2019)

• Greenpeace: One millions hectares burned inside Forest Moratorium area, Greenpeace analysis shows (2019)

• World Resources Institute: Indonesia’s Fire Outbreak Producing More Daily Emissions than Entire US Economy (2015)

• Mashable: It’s not just you, Google Search really has gotten worse (2024)

• The Register: AI’s thirst for power keeps coal fires burning bright (2024)

• Nusantara Atlas: Illegal Deforestation Exposed in Indonesia’s Prime Biodiversity Hotspot. (2024)

• Reuters: Nestle, P&G investigate palm oil sourcing after green group's Indonesia deforestation report (2024)

• Rainforest Action Network: 10 Years in the Leuser Ecosystem (2025)

• Mongabay: Indonesian court blocks palm oil expansion, but leaves Indigenous land rights in limbo (2025)

• Nature: Deforestation driven by urban population growth and agricultural trade in the twenty-first century (2010)

• The New York Times: Can Europe Save Forests Without Killing Jobs in Malaysia? (2024)

• European Commission: Implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (accessed 2025)

Episode Credits

Creator/Host: Rollie Williams

Writers: Rollie Williams & Matt Nelsen & Irene Plagianos

Director: Matt Nelsen

Editors: Rollie Williams & Laura Conte

Executive Producers: Rollie Williams, Matt Nelsen, Ben Boult, & Daniella Philipson

Cinematography: Matt Nelsen

Producers: Daniella Philipson & Irene Plagianos

California Producer: Hayley Dougan

Additional Cinematography: Ben Boult

Assistant Editor: Paul Ramsdell

Colorist: Nicholas Lareau

Intro Animator: Ian MK Cessna (https://ianhasawebsite.com/) 

Theme music by: Gratis (https://www.youtube.com/@gratis3241)

Special thanks: Ashley Thomson & David Gaveau

Special thanks to the Civil Liberties Defense Center (https://cldc.org/) for their continued support.