Palm oil plantations are stealing land from indigenous tribal cultures.
This is horrific News!

http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.s
urvival-international.org%2Fnews%2F3279

Can't say I'm surprised. The pattern seems to always be rich powerful people in rich countries taking resources for energy from dis-empowered people, marginalized people. It does not help when the government does not support the people and either stands by as resources are stolen, or else participates.
We can't rely on biofuels as some kind of silver bullet to the energy problem. I do not know enough of the science to know whether they are an appropriate choice to provide some of the world's energy needs, but whatever source we derive energy from it is important to understand the consequences of consuming this energy. Growing plants to fuel our cars takes land, and land is a limited resource, even if the plants themselves are renewable. There is only so much land in this world and a whole lot of people to share it with. Plus, if the practices used to grow the plants for fuel are not sustainable and rob the soil of its nutrients and cause soil erosion then we may be frustrating the whole purpose.

I just discovered National Geographic's interactive web page about biofuels. The information on this site may able to answer some of your questions about biofuel production and use.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/biofuels/biof
uels-interactive

I know that this topic is very controversial, especially the idea of using potential food for fuel when people all over the world, including in this country, are hungry. The issue is further complicated by the threatening of tribal lands and the unsustainable ways in which many of the biofuel crops are grown.

Personally, I think there are other more promising sources of alternative energy, such as wind power. People complain that windmills are ugly, but this is not as sensitive of an issue as the issues brought up by biofuel use. Also, windmills do not need to be repaired or replaced as frequently as other alternative energy technologies, such as solar panels.