How Brazil dominates sugar production without burning fields
Most of the world's sugar comes from sugarcane. But the plant is so difficult to harvest that farmers often set their fields on fire first to get rid of leaves and unwanted pests. That's how most sugarcane is harvested in Florida, the largest producer of sugar in the US. Residents who live near the fields say the giant smoke clouds are is making them sick. The largest producer of sugar in the world, Brazil, has figured out how to harvest the crop without burns. Can the US do the same?
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00:00Most of the world's sugar comes from sugarcane.
00:04But the plant is so difficult to harvest that farmers usually set their fields on fire first.
00:11That's to get rid of leaves so they can easily collect the valuable cane, full of sweet juice.
00:19In Florida, the biggest producer in the US, the smoke clouds can be seen from miles away.
00:24We estimated that between one and six deaths likely happened across South Florida as a result of sugarcane fires.
00:34It used to be the same story down in Brazil, the largest sugar producer in the world.
00:40But a few decades ago, farmers figured out how to harvest without burns.
00:46So why does the US keep setting its fields ablaze?
00:50And what will it take to shift this multi-billion dollar industry?
01:00For centuries, workers across the world harvested sugarcane by hand.
01:05Clearing tough leaves with a machete was time-consuming and took a toll on workers' bodies.
01:12Burning made it much faster and saved companies money.
01:16It also helped drive out unwanted pests like insects and rats.
01:22But nowadays in Brazil, most farmers harvest it raw, without the need for burning.
01:28The method is known as green harvesting.
01:31José Leandro manages nearly 80,000 acres of sugarcane in Sao Paulo.
01:44This circular saw first cuts off the top of the cane.
01:49The cane is then cut into small pieces.
01:53This circular saw first cuts off the top of the cane.
01:57A fan separates leaves from the stalk and then blows the unwanted plant material onto the ground.
02:23Brazil's red soils are dry and low in organic matter.
02:28The leaves shield the ground from water loss and erosion and keep it rich in nutrients.
02:42Raw cane also retains the valuable juice for longer.
02:47Tiago is the agricultural director of this farm.
02:52He's proud of the changes they've made, but he and José recognise there are downsides.
02:58The difference between you and me is that we don't have the same quality of sugarcane.
03:04We don't have the same quality of sugarcane.
03:08We don't have the same quality of sugarcane.
03:12We don't have the same quality of sugarcane.
03:16If you don't burn the sugarcane, you have the natural enemies of some of the pests that we have in the sugarcane, increasing and increasingly present.
03:28Many farms have to rely on pesticides to keep them out.
03:34The raw cane is also harder to process because it has extra leaf litter and impurities.
03:41Factories had to develop new chemicals to break it all down.
03:46We have to adapt.
03:49We need to include an enzyme because the cane straw has a lot of starch.
03:56They shred the cane and then crush it inside mills.
04:00The 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.
04:10The process is not entirely without fire.
04:13Leftover fibers called bagasse are burned in an incinerator that powers the facility.
04:20But here in Brazil it's not all about sugar.
04:24More than half of the sugarcane harvested is used to make a biofuel called ethanol.
04:29And that has been a key incentive to stop the burns.
04:33It's a renewable fuel, much cleaner than other fuels, especially fossil fuels.
04:41Ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline and emits 62% less CO2.
04:47But only if you're not setting the fields on fire to begin with.
04:54The Brazilian government began investing in its ethanol program in 1975 when oil prices soared.
05:00Brazil has the potential to become the world's largest producer of alcohol in just a few years.
05:07Sugarcane production tripled in just one decade.
05:12The second production spike came in the 2000s when the government invested in flex-fuel cars that could run on ethanol alone.
05:20Since the 70s the amount of land used for the crop grew five times in size, mostly in the state of Sao Paulo.
05:28But as the farm spread so did the burns.
05:32That made Brazil's ethanol a hard sell in international markets as more countries were looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
05:40In 2002 the state of Sao Paulo signed a law giving farmers about three decades to end the burns.
05:49New public policies, government funding and a spike in foreign investments helped farmers phase out burns.
05:56And it worked.
05:59By 2014 90% of the cane in Sao Paulo was green harvested.
06:05Today Brazil is the second largest producer of ethanol in the world, making more than 8 billion gallons in 2023, behind only the United States.
06:15But burning is still practiced in many top producing countries across the world, including India and Thailand.
06:24And it's common in the winter months in Florida, where large sugar companies like US Sugar and Florida Crystals operate.
06:33Residents who live near farms often have to work in the cold.
06:37The plumes are so large you can even spot them in satellite imagery.
06:43The state issues more than 8,000 permits for burns every season.
06:48Most happen in the rural areas.
06:51In the city of Sao Paulo there are more than 1,000 burns per year.
06:56In the city of Sao Paulo there are more than 1,000 burns per year.
07:00The state issues more than 8,000 permits for burns every season.
07:05Most happen in the rural region of Palm Beach County, known as the Glades.
07:10On windy days burns aren't allowed, but when there's only a breeze they are permitted if it's blowing inland,
07:17which keeps the smoke away from the more populated, wealthier areas.
07:22There are no burns in the summer, which is when Reggie Goodgame and his wife bought their home.
07:28There are no burns in the summer, which is when Reggie Goodgame and his wife bought their home.
07:50Within two years Reggie's wife Naomi began having asthma attacks.
07:55It's hard to prove the burns caused them, but the couple don't see it as a coincidence.
08:15EPA data shows Glades residents are among the most at risk for asthma in the country.
08:25Five minutes from my house back there.
08:29And I'm hoping air go blow to west so they don't come to our house.
08:35That's I was praying.
08:37How long they do make them do it? Why nobody stop it?
08:43All fires release toxic gases and particles.
08:47Some particles, called PM2.5, have a diameter 30 times smaller than a human hair.
08:52They can go deep into our lungs and make their way into our bloodstream.
08:57Inhaling too many can cause breathing difficulties and increase the risk of cancer and heart disease.
09:05A Florida State University study found a higher concentration of those particles during the burning season in winter months.
09:12We found that the fine particles generated by burning sugarcane is about equal to the fine particles that are produced by all of the vehicles in the state of Florida.
09:25The $13 billion U.S. sugar industry often disputes pollution claims.
09:30Many statements from the sugar industry have suggested that they have zero impact on air quality.
09:37The evidence shows otherwise.
09:39U.S. sugar, one of the largest producers in Florida, has released reports showing that air quality in the glades is better than the state average.
09:47But because the burns are so localized and often short-lived, air quality monitors don't always pick up the smoke.
09:55And local residents who get in the way of the blooms told us they see and feel the effects immediately.
10:01From many, many studies across the globe, we know that inhaling higher concentrations leads to higher mortality.
10:08We reached out to U.S. sugar, Florida Crystals and the sugarcane growers cooperative of Florida, but they didn't respond.
10:17Many 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.
10:27Farmers will sometimes opt for green harvesting when it rains or when it's too windy.
10:35But burns are still the norm because they're faster and reduce the need for pesticides.
10:41If we want to reduce pest pressure and we want to reduce pesticides and we want to be the best stewards of the land,
10:47sometimes that burn is just the best answer to being the best environmental stewards they can be.
10:53Another problem is that Florida's moist soil is already high in organic matter.
10:58So adding too much leaf material can affect the quality of the crops.
11:03It kind of produces an environment that's not really selecting for the plant to just jump up and start retuning over again.
11:12That's probably the biggest difference that I see between the science of sugarcane here in South Florida versus Brazil.
11:20It's our environment.
11:23Unlike in Brazil, there are no regulations that require or incentivize green harvesting here.
11:29Let's say you do green harvesting and you have all these pest issues and you don't have a healthy regrowth of the crop.
11:35In other parts of the world, sometimes the government will essentially bail these farmers out.
11:39So, I mean, if they would really want us all to switch to green, there would need to be a lot of tax dollars being spent to the farmer when their crop fails.
11:48The U.S. does subsidize sugar production with an estimated net cost to the economy of $1 billion each year.
11:56But the majority of the U.S. subsidies go to large producers of more popular crops like wheat, soy and corn.
12:03And the U.S. makes most of its ethanol from corn, leaving little room for a potential sugarcane ethanol market.
12:10There's no farmer out there that wants to go out and spray pesticides or wants to go out and burn.
12:15But at the end of the day, that's just not an option.
12:19Meanwhile, Reggie feels like he has little choice but to stay and fight.
12:24I don't want to give up this house for this burning.
12:27But something, you know, has to happen, man.
12:31Can't keep burning and burning.