Oiling our Palms

I was idly listening to the radio this morning while preparing my lunchtime sandwiches to take to work when my attention was caught by a piece on the decline of Orang-utans in the Indonesian rainforests. It seems that a contributory factor is the continued deforestation of the region. So, we think, that's easy to remedy - we just need to stop using hardwoods and the bottom will fall out of the market for those who fell the trees for timber products. But there's another bogey in it. Palm oil. The demand for this oil is sky high. And guess where 80% of it comes from - the rainforest region of Malaysia and Indonesia. The growers get a double bonus - they chop down the trees and sell the timber, then they plant millions of palm trees to generate the palm oil. In the process of this endangered species like Orang-utans and the Sumatran Tiger are further squeezed towards extinction through lack of habitat. OK, I hear you say, let's not use palm oil. Hang on, that's not as easy as it sounds. Did you know that 1 in 10 food products found on supermarket shelves contain palm oil? All this "healthy eating" means that olive oil and palm oil become more and more in demand. The Indonesian government and the Malaysian government are to sign an accord to assist the palm oil industry in maintaining that 80% share of an increasing market and, needless to say, money is the key factor. All of us, in striving for a healthier lifestyle, are doing our bit to bring about the extinction of more and more of the species on this planet.
If you go to the Friends of the Earth page on the subject
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/case_studies/palm_oil/ you can see the rantings and ravings of one section of the community. I wonder how many of them are vegetarians or Vegans and thus contribute more to the problem than they realise with their "healthy" diets? It's certainly not healthy for the Orang-utans or the Tigers.
Further coverage from a less biased source, the BBC, can be seen at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4273774.stm. Mention was made in the radio feature about creating palm plantations in drained mangrove swamps instead. What about all the myriads of species whose habitat would be destroyed by this? Doubtless if you search for palm oil on your search engine you will find sites such as the one I found from a Malaysian newspaper praising the multi-national cartel being created by the agreement between Malaysia and Indonesia.
To show that I have looked at other sides of the argument I would also direct you to http://www.mpopc.org.my/respond_to_CSPI.asp where a strong argument refuting the claims of Friends of the Earth and other campaigners is given.
I have no answers (I say that a lot) but greater minds than mine may be able to find a solution. If we were to give up every food that caused risk to other species we would be the species at risk, mainly because there are so many of us that eating simply and frugally and farming in the old, less destructive, ways it would simply lead to us all dying of starvation.
Once again, life's a bummer.