Brazil is a pioneer in using ethanol as an automotive fuel and is the world’s largest exporter of ethanol and second largest producer after the United States.
The Brazilian National Bishops’ Council, or CNBB, said at a news conference that such expansion could exacerbate income inequality in the countryside.
Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, president of the CNBB, also warned that expanding cane cultivation could encroach on primary forests, increasing deforestation rates. "We are going to turn the country into a huge cane (plantation)," he said.
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