In the fiery speeches of the former president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, there was a recurrent allusion that fuel alcohol (ethanol) would be the fuel of the future. In fact, alcohol is a much less polluting biofuel than fossil fuels and is within reach in the present in a cheap and accessible way to a large part of the Brazilian population and even to the population worldwide.
In Brazil, the sector sugarcane generates income from exports in the amount of US$ 7.7 billion, creating direct and indirect jobs at the level of 3.6 million per year. For all that, in addition to the great appreciation of the price of alcohol on the international market, due to the possibility of ethanol become a global fuel, sugarcane plantations have increased in some states of the country, especially in São Paul.
All of this would be commendable if it weren't for the problems verified throughout the process of alcohol production. The problems of monoculture are expressed and verifiable, they permeate the entire history of agriculture in Brazil. São Paulo currently has around 60% of all sugarcane production in the country, and as a result of this, it also has land concentration, tax evasion, poor conditions. of work on plantations and as a direct consequence of monoculture: the weakening of economic diversity in cities to the detriment of agriculture, livestock and food basic. This is without mentioning the environmental and health problems generated in the context of this production: for example, the fires that affect the soils and air quality in the cities around them, in addition to causing people several problems. respiratory symptoms.
It is necessary to look very carefully at this expansion (in São Paulo, in the years 2005-2006, the area planted with sugarcane increased by 15%) in the sugar-alcohol sector, so as not to make the mistakes of the agricultural export past Brazilian. The belief in a single culture can cause vulnerability or fragility in the face of an economic change that affects this sector.
A small (critical) update on recent research on sugarcane production in Brazil today may show the numerous problems social, economic, environmental and historical aspects of Brazilian agriculture, still taking place and being sustained by its more immediate and rapid results.
Per Amilson Barbosa
Columnist Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/a-canadeacucar-sao-paulo.htm