[Marxism] A Burning Question for Brazil's Sugar (WSJ)

[Walter Lippmann]

(One wonder if the unions are raising demands the sliding scale of hours or
what they are proposing as an alternative other than opposing the change.)
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September 24, 2007 
 
COMMODITIES  
  
A Burning Question
For Brazil's Sugar
Should Farmers Still Use
Fire to Help in Harvest,
Or Bring in Machines?
By KENNETH RAPOZA
September 24, 2007; Page C3
WALL STREET JOURNAL

SÃO PAULO, Brazil -- Each September, thousands of acres of Brazilian
sugarcane go up in smoke, a ritual that accentuates an economic,
social and environmental conflict.

Farmers burn the crop to facilitate harvesting by machete. The
government wants to end the practice, long considered a health hazard
and one of Brazil's top greenhouse-gas contributors. If the practice
is banned, mechanical harvesters will take over, taking thousands of
poor workers out of the field and likely leading to a social conflict
that city councilors and labor unions would rather avoid.

"The NGOs [nongovernment organizations] want to do away with it. The
[federal] government wants to get rid of it, but the unions and local
city council all say the same thing to me: 'Please don't bring your
machines here,' " said Paulo Aldaberto Zanetti, the chief executive
of Vale do Ivaí, a closely held sugar and ethanol company in São
Paulo.

São Paulo is the heart of Brazil's cane country and Brazil is the
world's leading sugarcane producer and exporter. Add
sugarcane-ethanol production to the mix, of which Brazil is also the
world's leader, and the tall green crop has become one of the most
important, if not controversial, crops growing in Brazil these days.

About 40% of the São Paulo sugarcane crop is machine-harvested. The
rest is done the old-fashioned way -- by long machetes swung by
temporary workers who often face poor working conditions.

Burning the cane eliminates the razor-sharp leaves from the cane
stalks, making it easier to cut by hand. Yet, cane-burning practices
pump a layer of black ash into the air, creating an eye-burning
pollution. Machines don't require burning.

Driving along the Bandeirantes highway in São Paulo, one notices
large orange flames visible just a quarter-mile from the road.
Billows of black smoke rise from the flames, making it look as though
a large bomb has just been dropped on the horizon.

The sky over Riberão Preto in the interior of São Paulo state is a
light tan, creating air quality nearly as poor as it is in São Paulo,
the nation's largest city.

"If you drive through these towns at this time of year, you are faced
with a layer of pollution and smoke that creates respiratory problems
and the government is aware of that, as much as it is aware of the
labor side of this," said Sérgio Torkuato, a researcher at the
Agriculture Economy Institute in São Paulo.

According to the Environmental Ministry, Brazilian agribusiness
contributes to 25% of Brazil's total carbon-gas emissions. Some of
that comes from fields of burning cane.

The Union of Sugarcane Industries, or Unica, and the federal
government signed a protocol in July agreeing to stop all
cane-burning by 2017.

"The environment is one of our biggest concerns right now in this
sector," said Marcos Jank, Unica's president.

But that means jobs will go. For every harvest combine used to cut
down the cane stalks, 180 men are taken out of the fields, estimated
Mr. Zanetti, the sugar-company executive.

The government doesn't know how many people work temporarily in
Brazil's sugarcane fields, but many are migrant workers from Brazil's
poor Northeast.

Brazil's sugarcane industry is facing its own set of growing pains.
Falling sugar and ethanol prices are squeezing company profit margins
following a year of heavy investments. World raw sugar prices at the
ICE Futures U.S. fell 0.05 cent Friday to 9.79 cents a pound for the
October contract.