"Ethanol: Brazil’s sugar-based biofuel built on labor abuse", 16 November 2021

...Brazil is the world's second biggest producer of ethanol, a biofuel made from sugarcane, corn and other crops that can be mixed with gasoline to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles powered by fossil fuels...

An investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation found the very workers who are contributing to the fight against climate change by harvesting sugarcane are also becoming its victims, as rising temperatures make the work increasingly hazardous...

Yet exclusively obtained documents show companies producing ethanol in Brazil remained on lists of suppliers cleared to export to Europe and the United States long after Brazilian authorities had named them in labor abuse cases...

In March, Brazilian labor inspectors found 45 workers in slavery-like conditions on a sugarcane plantation in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais at a facility that until recently was cleared to export to the United States...

Labor inspectors said its owner, Delta Sucroenergia, had engaged in slave labor and human trafficking.

Delta said it has since rescinded its contract with the two men who hired the workers, provided assistance to the rescued workers and revised its guidelines for service providers.

"Delta has collaborated and continues to cooperate with the authorities in fighting work analogous to slavery or any other form of work that is against the law," it said in a statement...

Delta Sucroenergia had been authorized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to export ethanol from Brazil to the United States as long ago as 2011, a public information request from the Thomson Reuters Foundation showed...