The Most Interesting Oil in the World

Here’s a little riddle for you: What’s all around you, but can’t be
seen, smelled, or tasted? Hint: It’s in your Oreos, Nutella,
instant noodles, dish soap, shampoo, lipstick, potato chips, pizza
dough, packaged bread, chocolate bars, ice-cream, and biodiesel.
The answer is ... palm oil, the hidden ingredient on just about
every aisle of the grocery store. It's the most ubiquitous, most
important, most interesting oil that most of us don't really know.
But palm oil wasn’t always so big, or so anonymous—in its West
African homeland, it’s a fragrant red oil traditionally used in
cooking and ceremonies. So how did palm oil go global? What does it
have to do with the European colonization of Africa, soap for grimy
factory workers, Girl Scout cookies, and Alfred Nobel of Nobel
Prize-fame? How has growing demand for all things palm oil driven
deforestation and peat fires in Southeast Asia—and what can we do
if we want to rethink our destructive palm oil addiction? Learn
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