I don’t think this has to do with food.
There is a world excess capacity of sugar and Brazil can produce lots more. The ethanol is actually rum.
We could be importing Brazil’s excess sugar at a lower price were it not for a fantastic sugar lobby that uses tax money subsidies and restricts imports.
The chemical conversion of ethanol to polyethelene is a good use of the excess sugar. Since most polyethelene is derived from petroleum feed stocks, since these feed stocks are becoming increasingly more expensive, it is a good thing if the end product can compete with similar PE derived from petroleum..
This is nearly the same as making sugar based ethanol to be blended with gasoiine.Brazil is probably the world leader in gasahol fuels.
I won't be long before the American corn farmers start joining the chorus........
Or we could find ways to make it more profitable to increase sugar farming in this country, for example, by producing sugar ethanol.
Any change in the way we fuel this country should be made with the principle that the new energy industry should be centered along the gulf of mexico the way the current one is.
Sugar cain produces about 700 gallons of ethanol per acre. The resulting wast, however, has no use, unlike corn.