Why do Brazilian cars run on sugar?

UnTextbooked | A history podcast for the future

It’s no secret that society will eventually have to transition away from fossil fuels. Some governments and businesses think the answer is biofuels,like ethanol. Ethanol is a type of alcohol—the same type of alcohol that humans have been producing for millenia. And so, in much of the world, the techniques to produce ethanol are already known and exploited. All it takes is the fermentation of sugary crop, like potatoes, corn, or sugarcane. The result is a clear liquid fuel that can power engines, similar to gasoline.

Brazil has long been the world’s leading producer of sugarcane. In the 1970’s, Brazil started switching more and more of its fuel supply over to ethanol. What started as an effort to combat the trade embargoes turned into a large-scale experiment on alternative fuels. But the story of Brazilian ethanol is complicated—It’s a worldwide industry predicated on exploitative labor and has significant environmental problems of its own.

On this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Jessica Chiriboga interviews Jennifer Eaglin, about the history of Brazil’s ethanol industry. They discuss the conditions that primed Brazil to make the transition, and the lessons learned along the way.

Book: Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol

Guest: Jennifer Eaglin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental History and Sustainability at Ohio State University

Producer: Jessica Chiriboga

Music: Silas Bohen and Coleman Hamilton

Editors: Bethany Denton and Jeff Emtman