Brazillian Authorities Raid Sugar Cane Plantation

June 2007

Sugar Cane Cutters or Indebted Slaves?

Brazil is a well known, large user of sugar-cane based ethanol; 80% of all new cars sold in Brazil are "flex-fuel" models that run on gasoline, ethanol or any combination of the two.

Ethanol currently sells for about half the price of gasoline in Brazil; it is inexpensive and accounts for nearly 20% of the country's annual fuel consumption. Increasing international demand and billions of financial dollars is allowing Brazil to expand due to being a major exporter of ethanol.

Sugarcane Ethanol

Maple Cos plans to build sugar cane ethanol plant in Peru, this facility is slated to completely self sufficient.

The Dallas, Texas based company will grow the sugar cane, harvest, process, and ship to the US all from the same Peruvian desert location. Sugarcane ethanol is considered to be a more viable feed stock when compared to corn-based ethanol. Ethanol from corn is expensive to produce and, requires energy such as fossil fuel in the process. This among other reasons such as a lack of suitable farmland, and the fact that corn is a main food source for many is reason enough to find other sources for ethanol.