The production of palm oil, a common ingredient found in hundreds of everyday beauty products, is devastating the environment. Commissioned for Vogue, we took an up-close look at Malaysian Borneo’s palm-oil plantations amid accusations of labor and human rights abuses, as well as massive greenhouse gas risks.
A backhoe operator attempts to improve the drainage on an old plantation being readied for replanting.
Mothers leave their children at an on-site daycare center while they work, applying fertilizers and spraying defoliants and pesticides. The clothing they are photographed in—protective masks, plastic aprons, and rubber gloves and boots—is now required on the plantation.
Plantation workers load just-harvested clusters of fruit onto a tractor cart.
This story was produced in partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a nonprofit news organization.
Photographed by:
George Steinmetz
Reported by:
Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
The production of palm oil, a common ingredient found in hundreds of everyday beauty products, is devastating the environment. Commissioned for Vogue, we took an up-close look at Malaysian Borneo’s palm-oil plantations amid accusations of labor and human rights abuses, as well as massive greenhouse gas risks.
At a Borneo mill, fruit collected from nearby fields awaits processing. Female farm workers hold bags of Canadian potash fertilizer.
A backhoe operator attempts to improve the drainage on an old plantation being readied for replanting.
Plantation workers load just-harvested clusters of fruit onto a tractor cart.
Mothers leave their children at an on-site daycare center while they work, applying fertilizers and spraying defoliants and pesticides. The clothing they are photographed in—protective masks, plastic aprons, and rubber gloves and boots—is now required on the plantation.
This story was produced in partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a nonprofit news organization.
Photographed by:
George Steinmetz
Reported by:
Jocelyn C. Zuckerman