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Bio-Diesel As A Rural Development Strategy

Farmers’ Hopes Sprout as Brazil Bets on Biodiesel

The country mandates use of the renewable fuel, with an eye toward helping small growers.

For the better part of his 64 years, Sebastian Luis de Sousa has scratched out a meager living in the paprika-red soil of central Brazil.

So when offered a chance to grow castor beans to produce an alternative fuel called biodiesel, the rawboned father of nine reckoned he had nothing to lose. The $200 he earned this summer from his tiny harvest wasn’t much. But rising demand for renewable fuels has De Sousa wanting to expand his 7 1/2 -acre farm.

"I want to buy more land," he said, rolling a prickly castor bean seedpod in his calloused palm. "This is an important thing that Brazil is doing."

Already the world’s largest producer of ethanol, Brazil is now betting on biodiesel, with an eye to helping small farmers like De Sousa capitalize on what some see as the next big thing in green energy. Derived from animal fats or vegetable oils, this substitute for petroleum diesel is generating ten of millions of dollars from investors.

By Marla Dickerson, Times Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-biodiesel19sep19,0,70362,full.story?coll=la-home-business

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