Biofuel production is booming, driven by the sugar cane laborers who officials say toil in deplorable conditions.
BOCAINA, BRAZIL — For as far as the eye can see, stalks of sugar cane march across the hillsides here like giant praying mantises. This is ground zero for ethanol production in Brazil -- "the Saudi Arabia of biofuels," as some have already labeled this vast South American country.But even as Brazil's booming economy is powered by fuel processed from the cane, labor officials are confronting what some call the country's dirty little ethanol secret: the mostly primitive conditions endured by the multitudes of workers who cut the cane.
June 16, 2008|Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer
