A review by noodal
Planet Palm: How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything--And Endangered the World by Jocelyn C. Zuckerman

2.0

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 an in-depth analysis of the global palm industry. Like, is it really necessary to highlight the prominent smoking culture in Indonesia and mention every time your interviewee was puffing on a clove cigarette? As relevant as species endangerment resulting from forest clearing for oil palm plantations is, I don't think the 10+ pages on Zuckerman's adventures in a Sumatran orangutan sanctuary really added to the discussion. It felt like it was written with an agenda rather than a compelling argument of how palm oil weaved itself into the global market. I think if you cut out all the fat, you'd be left with a generous exposition of palm oil's history that could easily set up something with more meat.