The ethics of ethanol: Brazil has led the way in developing this alternative to oil, but it needs to make sure the wealth is shared.

• Author: Cohen, Roger
• Position: OPINION

Seldom has a country seen an image makeover quite as radical, as Brazil's in recent years. The land of samba, slums, soccer, and smoking rain forests has forged ahead in ethanol. production, flex-fuel cars running on any combination of ethanol and gasoline, and a biofuel revolution that could deliver the world from $100-a-barrel oil.

In Brazil, 80 percent of new cars can run on ethanol or gasoline. All gasoline contains close to 25 percent ethanol, and ethanol, accounts for more than 40 percent of fuel consumption.

Brazil has led the way in demonstrating the potential of ethanol and has the land to expand the industry.

It uses sugar-based ethanol, whose yield per acre of land is eight times that of American corn ethanol. And Brazil's ethanol isn't boosting food prices around the world the way American ethanol is. (Higher demand for corn has sent its price soaring, which means the price of any product with corn as an ingredient increases.)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But a visit to a Brazilian sugar plantation reveals the hardship associated with ethanol. production. Danuza Gomes da Silva swings a glinting knife as she makes her way down the Length of a field cutting cane. She earns between $8 and $13 a day, depending on her productivity. Da SiLva, 35, has four young children. Only 20 percent of the 7.5 million acres planted with sugar cane in Brazil is mechanized. The rest depends on manual labor.

If the potential, of sugarcane ethanol, is to be realized, its development must allow the cane...