Biofuels in Perspective

Bio-Ethanol Development(s) in Brazil 71
positive aspects, wages levels may be insufficiently high to prevent poverty, 24 as can be
seen from the indicators presented in Table 4.4.
The main problem regarding sugarcane production is concerned with the working conditions
during manual cane harvesting. Most of the direct jobs are for harvesting; the workers
are migrants who move to the areas of plantations due to lack of economic alternatives in
their native regions. At least in the state of São Paulo the tendency is to reduce the number
of workers in this very tough activity, as mechanical harvesting will be fully implemented
up to 2017. A single harvester can displace about 80 cane cutters and just some workers
could be relocated to other functions. Thus, in order to avoid heavy unemployment, it
is important to displace workers for machines during the period of the expansion of the
ethanol industry.
4.7.6 Answering the Question about Sustainability
During more than 30 years of large-scale production of ethanol in Brazil results achieved
regarding sustainability are remarkable, but it is clear that improvements can and must be
reached. Considering the main principles of sustainable production described at the beginning
of this section, the main advantage of Brazilian production is regarding reductions
of GHG emissions. Results are well above the minimum saves European countries tend
to ask (30 % regarding the emissions of a gasoline vehicle), but can even be improved
with, for instance, phasing-out of sugarcane burning in the field, enlargement of electricity
production and reduction of diesel oil consumption in the agriculture.
The most common questions rose about ethanol production in Brazil with concern
to biodiversity protection in general and destruction of the Amazon forest in particular,
besides concerns about working conditions during manual harvesting. Both issues should
be properly addressed by Brazilian society despite the target of exporting ethanol.
Brazil has so far presented modest results avoiding the deforestation of rain forests (e.g.
according to the Brazilian Ministry for the Environment, 35 the deforestation of the Amazon
forest was reduced from 2.7 Mha/year to 1.0 Mha/year in four years), but it has not yet
been proved that sugarcane expansion is directly or indirectly responsible for deforestation.
Plantations of soybeans and pastures are pushing the borders of the Amazon forest and
environmentalists blame sugarcane expansion for inducing this process. However, the issue
is not to prove if this argument is right or wrong, but to stop deforestation as fast as possible.
And even the sugarcane production in the state of São Paulo, thousands of kilometers far
from the Amazon, should be improved in order to reduce the effects of monoculture and
to protect biodiversity.
Regarding the living conditions of workers, it is not reasonable to conceive the preservation
of manual harvesting as a way to keep the jobs of hundred of thousands of people.
A modern country needs to create better job opportunities and to improve life quality for
all citizens, and mainly the poorest. In addition, modernization of ethanol production is a
vital condition to make it a real commodity.
Ethanol production in Brazil is heterogeneous from the point of view of sustainability.
Part of the production is in condition to fulfill most of the principles under discussion
in Europe, but part of the production still presents serious problems. In a general sense,
production in the state of São Paulo is more close to fulfilling the sustainability standards