Criticism that Brazil has prioritized the manufacture of biofuel at the expense of food production is preposterous and flies in the face of a superb solution for global warming, according to the Brazilian ambassador to Japan.
While the world's biggest producer of sugar cane-based ethanol exported 3.532 billion liters in 2007, the conversion of crops has recently been accused of causing food prices to rise worldwide.
But Ambassador Andre Amado illustrated during an interview with The Japan Times last week that arable land used for sugar cane production is limited to 2 percent of Brazil's total agricultural area, and that ultimately only half of the crop ends up in ethanol.