Edible Empire cover art

Edible Empire

Edible Empire

By: Planet Pulse Pacific
Listen for free

Planet Pulse Pacific—your go-to podcast for conversations about people and planet—is proud to host a special series: Edible Empire.


As the climate and global health crises intensify, the need for meaningful change has never been more urgent. This six-episode series brings together leading voices from around the world to explore the concept of food imperialism, uncover the hidden social and environmental costs of what we eat, and examine how we can build a more just and sustainable food system.


Join your hosts, Ben Eitelberg and Emma Strutt, alongside special series co-host Dr Neal Haddaway, as they dive into the complex and often unseen world of food—how it is produced, traded, and consumed across the globe. Kelly Allum edits the series.

© 2026 Edible Empire Science
Episodes
  • Farwiza Farhan - Deep roots—a history of oil palm

    Farwiza Farhan - Deep roots—a history of oil palm
    Sep 8 2026

    This episode is a supplementary full interview with Farwiza Farhan 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.

    Farwiza Farhan brings a frontline conservation perspective from Indonesia, documenting how government-incentivised monoculture plantations drive deforestation, threaten endangered species, and violate Indigenous land rights. Farwiza debates whether palm oil can ever be truly sustainable at scale, and highlights the efforts of local communities fighting back against corporate food imperialism.

    To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

    Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
    Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to this podcast, and share this episode with your friends and family.
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
  • Associate Professor Jonathan Robins - Deep roots—a history of oil palm

    Associate Professor Jonathan Robins - Deep roots—a history of oil palm
    Sep 6 2026

    This episode is a supplementary full interview with Associate Professor Jonathan Robins 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 Jonathan Robins opens by detailing the pre-colonial history of oil palm in West Africa and explaining how European empires weaponised the crop to fuel the Industrial Revolution, establishing structural patterns that mirror today’s agribusiness models.

    Resources from this interview:

    • https://www.mtu.edu/social-sciences/department/faculty/robins/
    • https://commoditiesofempire.org.uk/about/jonathan-robins/
    • https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-e-robins-1227071

    To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

    Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
    Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to this podcast, and share this episode with your friends and family.
    Show More Show Less
    47 mins
  • Professor Jennifer Clapp - Corporate power in the food system

    Professor Jennifer Clapp - Corporate power in the food system
    Sep 1 2026

    This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Jennifer Clapp from Episode 2 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore how an increasingly monopolised system of multinational corporations operates as de facto states within the global food system, exercising power over land, labour, trade, and policy in ways that rival or exceed nation-states.

    If empires once flew flags, today they file annual reports. This episode examines how large agrifood corporations increasingly function as sovereign actors within global food systems. From controlling vast transnational supply chains and shaping trade rules, to influencing national policy and disciplining labour across borders, corporations now wield powers historically associated with states. Focusing on agribusiness, food traders, and retailers, the episode asks how corporate concentration has reconfigured food imperialism, turning companies into the new “nations” of food empires, and what this means for accountability, democracy, and food sovereignty.

    Professor Jennifer Clapp highlights how mega-mergers in the agricultural inputs sector allow a small cartel to exercise immense structural power, locking in an industrial model that dictates what society views as "normal" food practices, while trapping countries in the Global South in dependency loops that prioritise luxury exports over local food security. Despite the immense political and economic inertia behind this consolidation, we close with a message of hope, emphasising that because this extractive system was constructed by humans, it can be dismantled through active political engagement and collective action.

    Resources from this interview:

    • https://uwaterloo.ca/scholar/jclapp/home
    • https://ipes-food.org/people/jennifer-clapp/
    • https://uwaterloo.ca/environment-resources-and-sustainability/profiles/jennifer-clapp

    To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

    Please support our work and enable us to deliver more content by buying us a coffee or becoming a member of Athletes for Nature.
    Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to this podcast, and share this episode with your friends and family.
    Show More Show Less
    48 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet