B Dike wrote:
It's not beautiful if the expansion of palm oil production for biodiesel is one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in south-east Asia.
Before biodiesel, it was beef. If biodiesel goes away, it'll be something else. I think the driving force here isn't demand for biodiesel, it's the desire to make money. The actual cash crop being grown is just a symptom. The really tragic thing is that most of this land isn't very fertile, in spite of the lush rainforest growth on it. They slash and burn the forest, plant a few seasons' worth of crops, then abandon the land because it's used up.
