How Brazil Dominates Sugar Production Without Burning Fields | Big Business | Business Insider

most of the world's sugar comes from sugar cane but the plant is so difficult to harvest that farmers usually set their fields on fire first that's to get rid of leaves so they can easily collect the valuable cane full of sweet juice in Florida the biggest producer in the US the smoke clouds can be seen from miles away we estimated that between one and six deaths uh likely happen across South Florida as a result of sugarcane fires it used to be the same story down in Brazil the largest sugar producer in the world but a

few decades ago Farmers figured out how to harvest without Burns so why does the US keep setting its Fields a blaze and what will it take to shift this multi-billion dollar industry [Music] for centuries workers across the world harvested sugar cane by hand clearing tough leaves with a machete was timec consuming and took a toll on workers bodies burning made it much faster and saved company's money it also helped drive out unwanted pests like insects and rats but nowadays in Brazil most Farmers Harvest it raw without the need for burning the method is known as

green harvesting Jose Leandro manages nearly 80,000 acres of sugar cane in sou Paulo this circular saw first cuts off the top of the a fan separates leaves from the stalk and then blows The Unwanted plant material onto the ground [Music] Brazil's Red Soils are dry and low in organic matter the leaves Shield the ground from water loss and erosion and keep it rich in nutrients raw cane also retains the valuable juice for longer super Thiago is the agricultural director of this Farm he's proud of the changes they've made but he and Jose recognize there are

[Music] downsides many farms have to rely on pesticides to keep them out the rawane is also harder to process because it has extra Leaf litter and impurities factories had to develop new chemicals to break it all [Music] down they Shred the cane and then crush it inside Mills the juice is pressed from the pulp and purified then boiled and reduced to a syrup and spun in a centrifuge to separate the sugar crystals the process is not entirely Without fire leftover fibers called Bas are burned in an incinerator that powers the facility but here in Brazil

it's not all about sugar more than half of the sugarcane harvested is used to make a biofuel called ethanol and that that has been a key incentive to stop the burns ethanol Burns cleaner than gasoline and emits 62% less CO2 but only if you're not setting the fields on fire to begin with the Brazilian government began investing in its ethanol program in 1975 when oil prices [Music] soar sugar cane production tripled in just one decade the second production Spike came in the 2000s when the government invested in Flex Fuel cars that could run on ethanol

alone since the70s the amount of land used for the crop grew five times in size mostly in the state of sou Paulo but as the Farms spread so did the burns that made Brazil's ethanol A Hard Sell in international markets as more countries were looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2002 the state of South Paulo signed a law giving Farmers about three decades to end the burns new public policies Government funding and a spike in foreign investments helped Farmers phase out Burns and it worked by 2014 90% of the cane in Sal poo was

green harvested today Brazil is the second largest producer of ethanol in the world making more than 8 billion gallons in 2023 behind only the United States but burning is still practiced in many top producing countries across the world including India and Thailand and it's common in the winter months in Florida where large sugar companies like us sugar and Florida Crystals operate residents who live near Farms often see giant clouds of smoke falling from their backyards and this will continue on throughout the day spread it over hundreds of homs the plumes are so large you can

even spot them in satellite imagery the state issues more than 8,000 permits for burns every season most happen in the rural region of Palm Beach County known as The Glades on Windy days Burns aren't allowed but when there's only a breeze they are permitted if it's blowing Inland which keeps the smoke away from the more populated wealthier areas there are no Burns in the summer which which is when Reggie good game and his wife bought their home just felt comfortable and then all a sudden all hell broke loose man I thought call 911 somebody's house

is B I didn't know what's going on within 2 years Reggie's wife Naomi began having Asma attacks it's hard to prove the burns caused them but the couple don't see it as a coincidence that b smoke coming to my lung my son's lung my husband's lung my dog Dr not only us that smoke go everywhere EPA data shows Glades residents are among the most at risk for asthma in the country this one was 5 minutes from my house back there and I'm hoping air go BL to West so they don't come to our house that's

I was playing how long they do make them do it why nobody stop it all fires release toxic gases and particles some particles called PM 2.5 have a diameter 30 times smaller than a human hair they can go deep into our lungs and make their way into our bloodstream inhaling too many can cause breathing difficulties and increased the risk of cancer and heart disease a Florida State University study found a higher concentration of those particles during The Burning Season in winter months we found that the fine particles generated by burning sugar cane is about equal

to the uh fine particles that are produced by all of the vehicles in the State of Florida the $1 13 billion US sugar industry often disputes pollution claims many statements from uh the sugar industry have suggested that they have zero impact on air quality well the evidence shows otherwise us sugar one of the largest producers in Florida has released reports showing that air quality in The Glades is better than the state average but because the burns are so localized and often short-lived air quality monitors don't always pick up the smoke and local residents who get

in the way of the plumes told us they see and feel the effects immediately from many many studies across the globe we know that inhaling higher concentrations leads to higher mortality we reached out to us sugar Florida Crystals and the sugar cane Growers Cooperative of Florida but they didn't respond many farms in Florida already have machines similar to the ones in Brazil but here they're mostly used to harvest cane after the fields are already burned farmers will some sometimes opt for green harvesting when it rains or when it's too windy but burns are still the

norm because they're faster and reduce the need for pesticides so if we want to reduce pest pressure and we want to reduce pesticides and we want to be the best stewards of the land sometimes that burn is just the best answer to being the best environmental stewards they can be another problem is that Florida's moist soil is already high in organic matter so adding too much Leaf material can affect the quality of the crops it kind of produces an environment that's um you know not really selecting for the plant to just jump up and start

retuning over again that's probably the biggest difference that I see between um the science of sugar cane here in South Florida versus Brazil it's our environment unlike in Brazil there are no regulations that require or incentivize green harvesting here let's say you do green harvesting and you have all these pest issues and you don't have a healthy regrowth of the crop in other parts of the world sometimes the government will will essentially bail these Farmers out so I mean if they would really want us all this switch to Green there would need to be a

lot of tax dollars being spent to the farmer when their crop fails the US does subsidize sugar production with an estimated net cost to the economy of $1 billion each year but the majority of the US subsidies go to large producers of more popular crops like wheat soy and corn and the US makes most of its ethanol from corn leaving little room for a potential sugar cane ethanol Market there's no farmer out there that wants to go out and spray pesticides or wants to go out and burn but at the end of the day that's

just not an option meanwhile Reggie feels like he has little choice but to stay and fight I don't want to give up this house for this Burning but something you you know has happen man can't keep burning and burning [Music]