Edible Empire

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Alison Thomas from Episode 6 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore visions for a fairer food system that support producers, ensure diverse food choices, and challenge the intensive nature of current supply chains. Having heard about the deep history of extraction and exploitation inherent in globalised food supply chains, what doe...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Dr Million Belay from Episode 6 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore visions for a fairer food system that support producers, ensure diverse food choices, and challenge the intensive nature of current supply chains. Having heard about the deep history of extraction and exploitation inherent in globalised food supply chains, what...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Dr Anitra Nelson from Episode 6  of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore visions for a fairer food system that support producers, ensure diverse food choices, and challenge the intensive nature of current supply chains. Having heard about the deep history of extraction and exploitation inherent in globalised food supply chains, what...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Dr Crystal Bennes from Episode 5 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore the social impacts of phosphate extraction from Western Sahara, illegally occupied by Morocco, and its place in the wider machinery of food imperialism. Phosphate, mined from occupied Western Sahara, makes its way into the farming production systems of a number...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Dr Mike Joy and Dr Milena Bojovic from Episode 5 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore how New Zealand’s dairy industry links local landscapes to global extraction, ecological harm, and the wider machinery of food imperialism. New Zealand’s image of clean, green pastures hides one of the world’s most intensive dairy industries. Be...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with María Alonso Martínez from Episode 4 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore the human and environmental costs of the fishmeal and fish oil industry that has decimated fisheries in West Africa in the name of supplying aquaculture feed and cheap, year-round fish. What connects salmon farming in northern Europe with tomato farming in...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Dr Aliou Ba from Episode 4 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore the human and environmental costs of the fishmeal and fish oil industry that has decimated fisheries in West Africa in the name of supplying aquaculture feed and cheap, year-round fish. What connects salmon farming in northern Europe with tomato farming in southern S...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Hazel Healy and Brigitte Wear from Episode 4 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore the human and environmental costs of the fishmeal and fish oil industry that has decimated fisheries in West Africa in the name of supplying aquaculture feed and cheap, year-round fish. What connects salmon farming in northern Europe with tomato far...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Simen Sætre from Episode 4 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore the hidden impacts of salmon farming in northern Europe, revealing the human and environmental costs behind cheap, year-round food. What connects salmon farming in northern Europe with tomato farming in southern Spain? These two, seemingly distinct food supply chains...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Helena Varkkey 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 Helena Varkkey then unpacks the political economy of Malaysian production, exposing how entrenched relationships between political elites and conglomerates sh...

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 en...

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 f...

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,...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Phil Howard 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, tod...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Harriet Friedmann from Episode 1 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore how global food systems are shaped by historical power structures and capitalist mechanisms that prioritise corporate profit and "cheap food" over the health of ecosystems and human communities. Where does our food come from? Who works in th...

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Raj Patel from Episode 1 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore how global food systems are shaped by historical power structures and capitalist mechanisms that prioritise corporate profit and "cheap food" over the health of ecosystems and human communities. Where does our food come from? Who works in the fields...

This is the epilogue of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. This episode explores the systemic hidden costs of the global food system by reflecting on the core themes of the Edible Empire series, examining how modern corporate power and historical food imperialism drive global resource extraction and...

This is episode 6 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. Food isn’t just taste—it’s power. This podcast explores how empires and corporations built control through agriculture, reshaping cultures and feeding some at the expense of others. This episode explores visions for a fairer food system that su...

This is episode 5 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. Beyond recipes lies a story of power. From colonial plantations to modern agribusiness, this podcast reveals how the pursuit of food has redrawn maps, exploited people, and still shapes who holds control today. This episode explores how New Zea...

This is episode 4 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. We celebrate flavours, but rarely the people behind them. This podcast uncovers how food—once shaped by empire and now by corporate power—has long been used to control land, labour, and cultures. This episode explores the hidden links between s...

This is episode 3 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. Food isn’t just about taste—it’s power. This podcast explores how empires and corporations built control through agriculture, reshaping cultures and feeding some at the expense of others. This episode traces the global impact of the palm oil in...

This is episode 2 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. Beyond recipes lies a story of power. From colonial plantations to modern agribusiness, this podcast reveals how the pursuit of food has redrawn maps, exploited people, and continues to shape who holds control today. This episode explores how a...

This is episode 1 of a six-part series on food imperialism. Welcome to Edible Empire , a podcast by Planet Pulse Pacific about the hidden cost of our food. We celebrate flavours, but rarely the people behind them. This podcast uncovers how food—once shaped by empire and now by corporate power—has long been used to control land, labour, and cultures. This episode explores how global food systems ar...

Welcome to Edible Empire - hosted by Planet Pulse Pacific , this is a podcast series about the hidden cost of our food. We’re your co-hosts, Neal Haddaway, Benjamin Eitelberg, and Emma Strutt, with Kelly Allum on editing. When we talk about food, we tend to focus on recipes, flavours and dinner times. But what we rarely discuss is where our food comes from. And we don’t mean which supermarket - we...

Kal Glanznig is one of Australia’s leading youth ocean and climate champions, a true powerhouse inspiring a new generation of hopeful, action-driven environmental leaders. In the past year alone, he has reached more than 20,000 people through keynote talks, school programs, and Q&A screenings of his documentary Rising Up . Elected in 2024 as the youngest independent Councillor in the Sutherlan...