Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Poor practices taint Brazil’s ethanol exports

Poor practices taint Brazil’s ethanol exports

By John Rumsey and Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo

Published: May 20 2008 22:27 | Last updated: May 20 2008 22:27

Luís Oliveira and his gang get up at dawn to take a rickety bus to Fazenda Agua Doce, a sugarcane farm in central São Paulo state where the heat regularly tops 40 degrees.

They cut the cane by hand with a machete-like tool, the podão, the design of which has not moved on much since its invention. Water breaks are short and food meagre and unappetising.

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