Swedish oat milk company Oatly says it's on a mission to defeat the almighty dairy industry and save the planet. To do that, it claims it needs to grow into a massive corporate success — and it’s willing to take on controversial investments to get there.

In episode two of ‘The Oatly Chronicles’, we investigate what makes those investors so controversial. It takes us on a journey from green capitalism being battled out in the coffee shops of Malmö; to enormous housing protests in a post-financial crisis Spain; to… China?

This series is funded by Journalismfund Europe and the Allianz Foundation

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Credits: This episode was produced by Katz Laszlo, and reported by Katz Laszlo and Katy Lee. Editing came from Katy Lee, as well as Justine Paradis, visiting from NPR’s excellent podcast, Outside/In. Editorial support came from Margot Gibbs, Dominic Kraemer and Wojciech Oleksiak, and mastering, scoring and sound design also came from Wojciech.

Artwork came from favourite illustrator RTiiiKA.

Thank for talking to us: Fredrik Gertten, Lucía Gonzalez Martín, Laura Young, George Monbiot, Max Carbonell, Ben Axler, Brett Christophers, and Gregor Sebastian.

Special thanks to lovely neighbours Joris Klingen and Thomas van Dijk, for letting us use their very nice studio. You can find their music under Bovenburen.

Interesting links:

‘Change Isn’t Easy’ - Oatly’s statement on the Blackstone investment (August 2022 update) https://community.oatly.com/conversations/news-and-views/change-isnt-easy/62f2f4c91b4bf47dd15fb249

‘Private Equity Propels the Climate Crisis’ - a report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, 2021 https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PESP_SpecialReport_ClimateCrisis_Oct2021_Final.pdf

‘These Photos Show the Reality of Spain's Housing Crisis’ - Time, August 2015 https://time.com/4007349/spain-evictions-housing-crisis/

‘#RavalVsBlackstone. The right to the city versus the finance-real estate-tourism complex’ - European Network of Corporate Observatories, June 2020

https://corpwatchers.eu/en/investigations/cities-versus-multinationals/ravalvsblackstone-the-right-to-the-city-versus-the-finance-real-estate-tourism

‘Activists sour on Oatly vegan milk after stake sold to Trump-linked Blackstone’ - The Guardian, September 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/sep/01/oatly-vegan-milk-sale-blackstone

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On The Midnight Train To Bootlicking