Palm oil politics

Jennifer Riria grew up in a rural village in Kenya, juggled motherhood and university studies in her late teens, and ended up running one of the biggest microfinance institutions for women in Africa, which allows women to access loans for their businesses. The entrepreneur pionee ...  Show more

Headspace started life as a mindfulness app. Now it's partnering with the US Navy and investing in artificial intelligence for mental health support.The company's CEO Tom Pickett speaks to us about therapy, the increasing role of technology, and tackling burnout at scale.If you'd ...  Show more

Palm oil is found in everything from chocolate to shampoo, pizza, toothpaste and deodorant. It’s hugely popular with food and cosmetics companies because it’s odourless, tasteless and colourless, and does not alter the smell, taste or look of products. But palm oil — 85% of which ...  Show more

Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, a product found in everything from shampoo to soup; in the last two decades vast areas of forests have been cleared to make way for plantations. The remote province of Papua, home to Asia’s largest remaining rainforests has e ...  Show more

There's a biodiesel boom happening! It's fueled by incentives and policies intended to cut greenhouse emissions, and is motivating some oil companies like World Energy in Paramount, California to convert their refineries to process soybean oil instead of crude. NPR's food and agr ...  Show more

Europe has been swept by a wave of protests by farmers, many of whom blame environmental policies for increasing their hardship. In Germany, farmers are angry about the phasing out of tax breaks on agricultural diesel. A policy aimed at reducing pesticide use was one of many grie ...  Show more