PALMA AFRICANA

It is the contemporary elixir from which all manner of being emerges, the metamorphic sublime, an alchemists dream. So begins Palm a Africana, the latest attempt by anthropologist Michael Taussig to make sense of the contemporary moment. But to what elixir does h e refer? Palm oil. Saturating everything from potato chips to nail polish, palm oil has made its way into half of the packaged goods in our supermarkets. By 2020, world production will be double what it was in 2000. In Colombia, palm oil plantations are covering o ver one-ti...[Read more]