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9780197510681

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"The book addresses the political and environmental history of the ethanol industry, demonstrating the ""organic"" relations-here in a metaphorical sense-between state and businesses in the face of agrarian, ecological, economic, and political challenges. At its core is the central contradiction of Brazil's ethanol programs: ""one of the world's most advanced alternative energy initiatives while at the same time...contribut[ing] to environmental degradation and exploited rural populations"". In dynamic and concise prose, the book demonstrates the drama involved in establishing alternatives to fossil fuel-powered vehicles experienced by countries like Brazil. * Claiton Marcio da Silva, H-LatAm * By offering a 'cautionary tale about a twenty-first-century alternative fuel industry's development'...Eaglin demonstrates how ethanol supported the creation of an alternative fuel industry for a country without substantial oil reserves for the better part of the twentieth century, but exploited water and workers extensively in the process….It was neither green nor socially equitable. By exploring little-used archives and primary sources...Jennifer Eaglin has produced a reference work for studies of the contradictions of green industries both past and present....Sweet Fuel...deserves to be read and disseminated by scholars interested in political and environmental history, as well as those interested in diverse topics such as science and technology, the Brazilian economy, pollution, and the degradation of social working conditions. * Claiton Marcio da Silva, H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews * Sweet Fuel masterfully recasts the history of both alternative energy and Brazilian agriculture. Eaglin demonstrates that one of the most popular alternative energy sources— sugar-based ethanol—has brought widespread environmental degradation to Brazil. This carefully researched and beautifully written book is a must read for anyone interested in Latin American history and the study of energy more broadly. * Joel Wolfe, author of Autos and Progress: The Brazilian Search for Modernity * Sweet Fuel examines an extraordinary national energy transition, a full-scale shift from fossil fuels to biofuels, accomplished independently in a developing nation. Eaglin elucidates the private and political motivations for fueling Brazilian cars with cane sugar as effectively as she reveals the environmental and social costs of converting farms into refineries. An insightfully unique contribution to the growing literature on Latin America's determined search for energy independence. * Shawn W. Miller, Brigham Young University * Jennifer Eaglin analyzes the trajectory of Brazilian ethanol through changing dynamics of domestic political-economy tensions, the demand for ethanol-fueled cars balanced against the fuel, technological innovation, global geo-economy, and climate. Eaglin converges these national and global themes with local circumstances to demonstrate the interaction between environmental and labor degradation underpinning much of the environmental violence of poverty that fueled mid-twentieth century development in Brazil. Sweet Fuel creates a multi-dimensional and highly nuanced perspective of energy diversification, providing a major contribution to historians of Brazil, energy, and business as well as to practitioners of energy policy. * Gail D. Triner, Rutgers University * As the quest to decarbonize economies becomes imperative to curb global warming, with biofuels as one of the options being debated, Brazil's large-scale historical experience with ethanol deserves to be reassessed. Eaglin's meticulous and creative analysis reveals that the use of biofuels cannot be understood in isolation, just as 'green energy' needs to be connected with a series of other serious problems and challenges that are related to it, such as land ownership, water pollution, labor conditions, and food safety. * José Augusto Pádua, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro *"

Sweet Fuel masterfully recasts the history of both alternative energy and Brazilian agriculture. Eaglin demonstrates that one of the most popular alternative energy sources- sugar-based ethanol-has brought widespread environmental degradation to Brazil. This carefully researched and beautifully written book is a must read for anyone interested in Latin American history and the study of energy more broadly. * Joel Wolfe, author of Autos and Progress: The Brazilian Search for Modernity * Sweet Fuel examines an extraordinary national energy transition, a full-scale shift from fossil fuels to biofuels, accomplished independently in a developing nation. Eaglin elucidates the private and political motivations for fueling Brazilian cars with cane sugar as effectively as she reveals the environmental and social costs of converting farms into refineries. An insightfully unique contribution to the growing literature on Latin America's determined search for energy independence. * Shawn W. Miller, Brigham Young University * Jennifer Eaglin analyzes the trajectory of Brazilian ethanol through changing dynamics of domestic political-economy tensions, the demand for ethanol-fueled cars balanced against the fuel, technological innovation, global geo-economy, and climate. Eaglin converges these national and global themes with local circumstances to demonstrate the interaction between environmental and labor degradation underpinning much of the environmental violence of poverty that fueled mid-twentieth century development in Brazil. Sweet Fuel creates a multi-dimensional and highly nuanced perspective of energy diversification, providing a major contribution to historians of Brazil, energy, and business as well as to practitioners of energy policy. * Gail D. Triner, Rutgers University * As the quest to decarbonize economies becomes imperative to curb global warming, with biofuels as one of the options being debated, Brazil's large-scale historical experience with ethanol deserves to be reassessed. Eaglin's meticulous and creative analysis reveals that the use of biofuels cannot be understood in isolation, just as 'green energy' needs to be connected with a series of other serious problems and challenges that are related to it, such as land ownership, water pollution, labor conditions, and food safety. * Jose Augusto Padua, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro *

Author Information

Jennifer Eaglin is an assistant professor of environmental history/sustainability at The Ohio State University. Her dissertation won the Lewis Hanke Award of the Conference on Latin American History.

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