New Scientist: IT'S beginning to feel like déj vu. With global demand for cosmetics, soap, biodiesel and vegetable cooking oil ever on the rise, the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) has been a boon, providing the essential ingredient for all these. So much so, that it is now widely cultivated beyond its native range, notably in South-East Asia, where the creation of vast oil-palm estates has caused massive deforestation and the local extinction of some species.
Anthropologist Joshua Linder at James Madison...