Topic: Migrant workers
Country: Federal Republic of Brazil
Delegate: Zachary Tyler Ronan


Currently in the Federal Republic of Brazil there is a new energy source that could change the way we think about fuels forever. The revolutionary fuel is ethanol, Ethanol derived from sugar cane and is currently Brazil’s main crop profit and pollutes 13 % less than gasoline. If you can imagine a fuel that humans can grow every year instead of drill, you would think it would benefit everyone involved, but the scary truth is that over 1 million workers and 200,000 temporary migrant workers in Brazil suffer everyday to extract the cane sugar from the fields.

In Sao Paulo,Brazil where temperatures reach scorching, workers have since as long back as 1525 have worked for an average 12 hour day in prison like complexes where they and their families sleep on wooden bunk beds, for a meager pay of $150 a month. Between 2004-2006 seventeen workers died of heat exhaustion and many more where injured. These workers including child laborers are ultimately taken advantage of for many of them don't speak the language and have no natural rights. Brazilian business tycoons who make billions purposely under pay the people who work so tirelessly to make them a profit. Last year alone the ethanol market was worth $8 billion. The main producers are the wealthier south east who produce 85% of the sugar harvest while the poorer north east with a much smaller 15%. Last year, the United States imported 433.7 million gallons of ethanol.

Another problem with sugar harvesting is the pollution it brings to Brazil and its citizens. The deforestation of rain forest and burning of cane fields is under severe legislation because it causes air pollution, It sometimes gets so bad that airports cannot operate due to the amount of smoke in the sky. The physical exploitation of the workers can and will be changed in the future by machines. The machines that cut the canes can produce the same amount as 80 men would in a day and leave behind a grass layer which redistributes the nutrients needed for the next season. But the problem is that they devour oil, and the jobs of the workers which isn't fair. The solution to the pollution caused by sugar combiners may also very well be bio diesel in the foreseeable future.
Although the horrors of the sugar fields are a problem there are also the benefits such as cleaner energy source and the 300,000 jobs it brings to Brazil. The U.N. and da Silva, the president of Brazil are currently trying to find a resolution but till then the problem still stands.