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The expansion of capital over territories — under the pretext of providing “green” and “sustainable” solutions — reveals the continuity of an intensive and extensive extractivist logic, now wrapped in environmental discourse that converts land, water, sun, wind, and biomass into commodities in the name of the energy transition.
Lisbet Julca Gonza is a postdoctoral researcher at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo and a member of the International Observatory of Studies on Democracy, Inequality, and Ruralities in the Global South.
Fabiana Barboza Alves de Anhaia is a rural educator in the field of Natural Sciences who graduated from the Federal University of Paraná. She is currently pursuing a specialization in Associated Work and Education Beyond Capital in Latin America at the Federal Institute of São Paulo in partnership with INCRA–PRONERA.
Within this framework, the sugar-energy sector and agrofuels, despite their rhetoric of modernity, not only maintain but also expand this dynamic. They transform land into zones of intensive extraction, deepen historical inequalities, and intensify direct conflicts with communities and family farmers. The energy agribusiness has consolidated its dominant position through financing policies and institutional mechanisms that, although promoted as “sustainable”, conceal severe socio-environmental impacts. Research has documented the negative effects of these practices on human health and ecosystems, while also reinforcing the subordination of family-based agriculture, reducing it to a mere supplier of raw materials for the agrofuel market and its derivatives.
Agrofuels (the term we use here to refer to what industries and the state call “biofuels”, as it makes explicit their agricultural origin) are considered “the representatives of the first generation of fuels derived from biomass”. They are often presented as a solution for strengthening agriculture, as well as energy and food sovereignty. Yet their expansion has been marked by contradictions, particularly in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Guatemala, which concentrate the world’s largest sugarcane plantations.
In Brazil, the production of ethanol, bioelectricity, biogas, and biomethane amounts to around 17.5 billion litres per year, with each hectare of sugarcane yielding approximately 7,000 litres of ethanol. This expansion has generated growing competition over land use — not only concerning food production and environmental preservation, but also in relation to other forms of energy generation, such as wind and solar power.
This scenario has heightened agrarian conflicts and redefined patterns of land use, demanding a critical analysis of the proposals and initiatives advanced by social organizations and peasant movements. Based on these premises, this article examines the relationship between land and the sugar-energy sector in the state of São Paulo, addresses the consequences of this cultivation on local territories, and presents alternative proposals developed by organized communities.
Agribusiness, the Sugar-Energy Sector, and Socio-Environmental Conflicts
In the state of São Paulo alone, around 440 million tonnes of sugarcane were produced in 2023, destined for the ethanol, sugar, and biomass industries. As shown in the map below, this cultivation is concentrated mainly in the regions of Ribeirão Preto, Piracicaba, São José do Rio Preto, Araçatuba, and Pontal do Paranapanema. The total area occupied amounts to approximately 4.5 million hectares, and the estimated production value increased from 29 million reais in 2019 to 56 million reais in 2023.
This period was marked by the consolidation of agroenergy shaped by capital-driven environmentalism and grounded in the expropriation of land and water, two indispensable elements for agroindustrial enterprises. In this process, agrofuels were paradoxically incorporated into rural development policies as an opportunity to strengthen capitalist agriculture and boost sugarcane-derived products, with the support of state programmes and policies related to the energy matrix and national fuel policy, such as the National Biodiesel Programme (PNPB) of 2004 and the National Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio) of 2017.
In Brazil, the regime of accumulation centred on agribusiness has shaped social relations and institutions since the colonial period, perpetuating conflicts around monoculture and the environment. During the military regime, mills were transformed into energy-commodity hubs, and the adoption of an agrarian policy privileging the development of capitalism oriented towards agrofuels catalysed a cycle of investment in new mills while sidelining the agenda of agrarian reform. With public resources concentrated on promoting agribusiness, corporations have been able to operate with large volumes of credit, long grace periods, and tax exemptions, whereas peasants receive only a minimal share of support.
An example of this imbalance can be seen in the Plano Safra (Harvest Plan). Between 2010–11 and 2022–23, agribusiness received 90 billion reais and 340 billion reais, respectively, while family-based agriculture received 16 billion and 71 billion reais. On average, agribusiness has received between five and six times more resources than family farming — revealing the kind of development the state prioritizes. This favouritism has enabled the rise of massive corporate conglomerates, such as Cosan and Atvos (formerly Odebrecht Agroindustrial), which control the entire production chain — from sugarcane cultivation to highways and ports, including the state concession areas of the Port of Santos.
Those who resist the expansion of plantations and infrastructure promoted by corporations are often accused of being opposed to progress.
Due to the persistence of land concentration, the territorial dynamics of the agroindustrial sugarcane complex directly affect forms of peasant labour organization. This limits access to land and produces a stark imbalance in the implementation of public policies and investments aimed at strengthening family-based agriculture. Moreover, the sugar-energy sector presents itself ideologically as the embodiment of capital-driven environmentalism — offering “green commodities” that allegedly contribute to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving rural livelihoods through job creation.
However, the ecological impact of sugarcane cultivation on agrarian reform settlements reveals a different picture: soil infertility and compaction, erosion processes, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss caused by chemically intensive monocultures reliant on agrotoxins.
Researchers from the Centre for Studies on Education, Work, Environment, and Health (CEETAS) have shown that the presence of sugarcane and mills — driven by the Agro-environmental Zoning (ZAA) policy — has brought significant and contradictory impacts to the region of Pontal do Paranapanema. Monoculture now occupies more than 60 percent of some sub-basins, compromising both the quality and availability of water resources. In addition, 5,028.70 hectares of sugarcane are located less than 250 metres from springs, while 57,645.55 hectares are within the same distance from rivers — heightening the risk of contamination and siltation.
The expansion of sugarcane cultivation has also advanced over areas of high aquifer vulnerability, growing from 3,516.27 hectares in 2002 to 78,865 hectares in 2016, and into buffer zones of conservation units, where the cultivated area rose from 24,758.45 hectares in 2002 to 173,812.65 hectares in 2016. Paradoxically, agrofuel production is frequently presented as a less polluting alternative to petroleum. Yet this narrative conceals the broader socio-environmental damage caused by commodity production in Brazil — harm that affects all Brazilian biomes in diverse ways: deforestation, environmental and human contamination, wildfires, desertification processes, siltation of rivers and springs, and biological imbalance, among other impacts.
Even as the sugar-energy sector reinvents its narratives and technologies — including social initiatives — it preserves its predatory and concentrative nature, threatening environmental justice and human health, particularly in agrarian settlements, which often become targets of agribusiness expansion. Furthermore, technological transformations in the labour sphere — introduced to boost sugarcane productivity — reinforce capitalist accumulation at the expense of increasingly precarious working conditions.
For a Popular and Sovereign Energy Model
Those who resist the expansion of plantations and infrastructure promoted by corporations are often accused of being opposed to progress. Yet the debate on agrofuels gains real significance when it centres on decentralized models, in which energy production is controlled by communities and integrated into territorial economies — transforming agroenergy into a tool for rural development and for strengthening territorial autonomy.
In this sense, in 2009 the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) inaugurated the first ten biodigester units of the Alto Uruguai Project in the Itapiranga (state of Santa Catarina). This pioneering initiative converts pig waste into clean energy, the result of a partnership between Eletrosul, Eletrobras, universities, and local municipalities. The project benefited 5,000 families with access to electricity, created the first group of farmer–energy producers in Brazil, and installed 40 solar panels in public buildings — combining an environmental solution (waste treatment) with income generation. The project became a national reference in the struggle for energy justice, demonstrating how social movements can lead concrete alternatives to the traditional energy matrix.
More recently, the “Alimergia Continuidade” Project, developed by the Brazilian Cooperative for the Production, Industrialization, and Commercialization of Biofuels (Cooperbio) with support from Eletrobras, has made significant progress in sustainability and agroecology in the Médio Alto Uruguai region of Rio Grande do Sul. Implemented in municipalities such as Seberi and Erval Seco, the project established 20 agroforestry systems over two years, combining intercropped food production with 260 technical visits, and engaging farmers and students in environmental education activities.
Given the immense challenges faced by peasants and the environmental destruction generated by the dominant energy model, it is evident that access to energy within family-based agriculture is essential for storage, processing, agro-industrialization, and food preservation.
Another example comes from the Genipapo Settlement in Acreúna (state of Goiás), where the introduction of solar energy has proven to be both viable and transformative. The Genipapo Settlement Residents’ Association (AMAG) received a solar energy system for its local agroindustry, directly benefiting a bakery run by twenty women from the community. This initiative replaced the cost of electricity bills and strengthened production that supplies schools and social assistance programmes in the municipality. In the Maré Settlement, located in Aliança (state of Pernambuco), the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) and the state government of Pernambuco have worked to replace sugarcane monoculture with the production of healthy food — such as agroecological rice — cultivated by families who once knew only the “green desert” of sugarcane.
Reinforcing these experiences, on 2 March 2024 the federal government launched the pilot project Cozinha Solidária Sustentável (Sustainable Solidarity Kitchen). The initiative foresees the installation of biodigesters and solar panels in seven community kitchens strategically located across Brazil: Foz do Iguaçu (PR), Brasília (DF), Ananindeua (PA), São Leopoldo (RS), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Fortaleza (CE), and Boa Vista (RR). In addition, other essential equipment will be provided to ensure a clean cooking process during meal preparation, namely, through the use of alternative energy sources.
Given the immense challenges faced by peasants and the environmental destruction generated by the dominant energy model, it is evident that access to energy within family-based agriculture is essential for storage, processing, agro-industrialization, and food preservation — thereby strengthening food and energy sovereignty in rural areas. It is therefore necessary to diversify energy sources and implement public policies that promote alternatives such as solar, wind, and biomass energy.
Moreover, it is urgent to amplify the visibility of denunciations concerning the territorial impacts of the energy agribusiness and its consequences for women and youth. These groups not only denounce such abuses but also lead concrete experiences through agroecological practices and decentralized energy models, demonstrating that it is possible to reconcile energy production with socio-environmental justice, to integrate renewable energy systems with food and livestock production, and to build collective management systems that transform energy from a commodity into a tool of territorial sovereignty.
