Feijão reduz custo de cana (OESP)

Portuguese story available here.
The Agribusiness Technology São Paulo Agency (Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios, APTA), Ribeirão Preto chapter, is conducting a research to plant eight types of beans between the sugar cane lines. Not only this is brings another wealth source to the producer but at the same time it raises the food production.
Mr. [...]

Make your own biofuel (Google)

Today, 10th of July, a search for “make your own biofuel” on Google returns about 466.000 pages. It is amazing!

EU and Brazil join forces over biofuels (The Guardian)

EU leaders are concerned about an ethanol production that meets environmental, labour and social standards, according to this story by The Guardian.
It is a good picture for Brazil and other poor and developing countries in Central America, the Caribbean and Africa, according to President Lula from Brazil. In Brazil thebiofuels allowed a 40% reduction of [...]

L’Union européenne fait marche arrière sur les biocarburants (Le Monde)

Original and Portuguese translation available.
All of a sudden, 27 energy ministers from the EU gathered and decided to re-read the article 3 for the renewable energy plan. As mr Jean-Louis Borloo, the French environment and energy minister, said, “The member states realised that the Commission’s plan specifies that 10 percent of transport needs must come [...]

O Economicismo Talibã (Época Negócios)

Quick interview with the minister for agricultural development, in which he defends the Brazilian government program that joins social and economical goals under the biodiesel program.

Arbitragem no Consecana (Folha de São Paulo)

The former minister of agriculture, mr Roberto Rodrigues, gave an unusual perspective for today’s ethanol and sugar sector in Brazil.

Biodiesel in Brazil (Tendências Consultoria)

This is just a press release, since I can’t find the original study. But first, a little background.
Most of Brazil’s cargo system is made by trucks. Its roots are from President Juscelino Kubitschek’s development program, which opted for a automobile industry. Instead of building tracks and trains, Brazil chose highways in the late 1950’s.
Today, not [...]

Pavan Sukhdev : “Il faut donner un prix à la biodiversité” (Le Monde)

Original here, Portuguese translation here. Although not related directly to the past few posts I have made (agriculture and biofuels in Brazil), it has a close relation to my object of studies (agriculture in Brazil). Therefore, I am blogging.
Não se trata de frear o desenvolvimento a que diversos países aspiram, mas devemos ter consciência das [...]

Lean, green and not mean (The Economist)

Pedro Doria today drew my attention to an interesting article that outlines a few pros and cons of Brazilian ethanol. I already left a comment there but I also decided to write here. Cutting to the chase:

The petrol prices in Brazil haven’t seen a raise for the past three years. A side effect is that [...]

Drivers of Food Price Increases: Is it fair to blame biofuels? (New Energy Finance)

Again, the food vs. fuel debate. I consider this as a very important issue, since the poor suffer a lot more even from slight changes on food prices.
“Drivers of Food Price Increases: Is it fair to blame biofuels?” (from New Energy Finance) is a study to which I haven’t had full access. However, after reading [...]