Brazil, Land & Ethanol

Now and then I read and listen people saying that Brazil is cropping its trees to increase fuel production. I just read the same thing again here in NowPublic and I because of that I would like to share some thoughts with the community.

What some people doesn't realize is that Brazil is big and there are areas that doesn't have anything, not even forest. We are just able to grow anything in those areas due to a long research process that lead us to create new culture techniques and produce adaptable species that can succeed in those kind of soil.

Just to make a comparison (maybe not the best one), you could think about Saskatchewan, in Canada, and its grains growing. What else would you do there in those plains and prairies?

Of course deforestation is a problem, but even with it Brazil has the higher preserved native land. It's not an excuse but just a fact that I would like to share. We can't afford to stay put, we need to grow and we are able to do that in a sustainable way. Governments often criticize us without looking back their own history. How did the USA manage to find such amount of empty land to grown their corn?

I think the big question now is not about deforestation, since we are all aware of that, but how much space will be reserved to produce fuel instead of producing food. Brazil is big, maybe it's possible to do both, maybe not. Maybe simply ethanol isn't the answer or just a temporary one.