08 April 2010

COLOMBIA: Bugs Killing Palm Oil Trees, A Coca Plant Aternative.

LATIMES/   About 60% of the African palm oil trees planted in the Magdalena River valley, 200 miles north of Bogota and elsewhere in Colombia are dying from a fast spreading bug. The palms were seen as an alternative crop to coca, cocaine's raw material, and as an ambitious biofuels plan. President Alvaro Uribe promoted the crop, making it his special cause. Now "that little bug is eating our future," said an agronomist.