PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: Palm oil is almost impossible to avoid. It can be found in roughly half the products on supermarket shelves, from Dove soap and Oreo cookies to instant noodles and hand sanitizer. While most shoppers know little about the commodity or the human toll, the $65 billion industry has long been criticized for environmental destruction and labor abuses. And big companies and banks have been profiting.
Associated Press reporters spoke to more than 130 current and former workers from two dozen companies across wide swaths of Malaysia and Indonesia, the two biggest producing countries. The men, women and children interviewed came from eight different countries and included some of the most vulnerable people on the planet, including Rohingya Muslims who fled ethnic cleansing in their homeland.
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