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Professor Helena Varkkey - Deep roots—a history of oil palm
Description
This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Helena Varkkey from Episode 3 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we trace the global impact of the palm oil industry from its indigenous roots to modern supply chains.
Dr Helena Varkkey then unpacks the political economy of Malaysian production, exposing how entrenched relationships between political elites and conglomerates shield the industry from regulation. Helena critiques the effectiveness of voluntary sustainability certification schemes like the RSPO and debates whether palm oil can ever be truly sustainable at scale.
Resources from this interview:
To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.
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