Brazil is energy independent not because of ethanol but because her territorial waters contain the largest oil deposits discovered in the last fifty years.
Using food stocks such as cane sugar or corn to make fuel is foolish at best. One could ask the residents of the African continent who now compete for basic raw food materials with the bio-refining industries.
Burn Ethanol and Starve an African. catchy, no?
Science magazine on the matter.
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I'm sure copa meant to inform us that they were clearing land near Sao Paolo for increased sugar cane production, while they were clearing the Amazon lands for soybean production, to make biodiesel. It's all in the details.