Palm oil prices jumped in
September and are predicted to rise 20 per cent next year while
global demand for biofuels is now rising at 25 per cent a year.
Environmentalists are calling for sustainable cropping
Roger Higman of Friends of the
Earth UK, which backs biofuels, says: “We need to ensure that the crops
used to make the fuel have been grown in a sustainable way or we will
have rainforests cleared for palm oil plantations to make bio-diesel.”
New Scientist, 19/11/2005, p. 19