The problem with this is that the trend is towards mechanisation and higher efficiency, which could lead to a social bloodbath with hundreds of thousands of cane cutters losing their jobs.

The number of problematic sugarcane plantations has become very, very low, as the Brazilian government has done a lot to improve conditions and punish those who do not live up to the rules.

Of course, Amnesty is an organisation that has a static and eurocentric view of the world, and just like all eurocentric and neocolonial organisations, wants to have something to say about biofuels in developing countries. No problem with this.  

The real problem, however, is the very rapid trend towards mechanisation in Brazil's cane sector.

More than 30% of all plantations are now mechanised, and this rate is growing very rapidly.

So much so that the governor of São Paulo has recently convened a task force to find ways to prevent a social massacre resulting from the hundreds of thousands who are losing their jobs and who end up in even deeper poverty in the slums.

The proposed solution is to expand sugarcane plantations and train the jobless, unskilled workers so that they can become part of a larger mechanised sugarcane organisation.

Of course, in an ideal world we would all want that the poor landless farmers who are caught up in this dirty dilemma (either work on a plantation or end up in poverty in the slums), had access to land, good farm inputs and markets, so that they can make a living.

Sadly, there are so many barriers to this dream, that you can just as well think of the sugarcane sector as the least worst of the alternatives.

No sugarcane firm forces the poor into labor. It's the perverse economic conditions that are responsible. And if we want to change this situation, we have to tackle these root causes.

But eurocentric organisations who criticize with one hand, are not willing to use their other hand to question these root causes (because they all point at them.)

Anyways, the social sustainability of sugarcane ethanol is strong. But there's obvious room for improvement.

Just like the social benefits of Indonesia or Malaysia's palm oil industry are gigantic. But there are always some rotten palm kernels in the basket.

The structural trend towards mechanisation of sugarcane operations is far more problematic in Brazil.

Justifiable for the dream of fuel farming?  Gas guzzling must continue at all costs, as we see in Iraq and very soon in Iran?

The message to the developing world is; surrender your lives and resources to fuel our gas guzzler lifestyle and/or face invasion, corporate and/or military.  No choice.

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