In the view of environmentalist Marcel Gomes, it is reasonable to criticise the different consequences that biofuels have for small and large farmers alike.
"When sugarcane is extended to an auspicious region, those who once produced various types of crops are obligated to grow sugarcane or soybeans, the raw materials for biofuels," said Gomes, coordinator of Repórter Brasil, a social journalism organisation that tracks issues related to slave labour and biofuels.
That change "does not affect the country's food security, but it does affect the small farmer who made a living from those fruits and their sales."
Rogério Rocco, a legislative candidate from the Green Party in October's elections and former superintendent of the governmental Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Resources, believes the country should remember its past negative experiences with monoculture.
"The crop monoculture of coffee and sugarcane devastated the Atlantic Forest (along the Brazilian coast). Today only eight percent of that original vegetation remains," Rocco told Tierramérica.
via ipsnews.net
