Knowledge Production and Land Relations in the Bioeconomy. A Case Study on the Brazilian Sugar-Bioenergy Sector

Maria Backhouse,Kristina Lorenzen

doi:10.3390/su13084525

Maria Backhouse, Kristina Lorenzen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084525

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Apr 19, 2021
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Abstract

National bioeconomy strategies aim for a comprehensive transition from a fossil-based to a biomass-based economy. One common feature of the strategies is the optimistic reliance on technology as main tool in order to overcome the socio-ecological crisis. From the critical perspectives of political ecology and the political economy of research and innovation, technologies and technological innovations are not neutral solutions to the problem; they are generally socially embedded. Against this backdrop, we contextualise the technological innovations that support a more climate-friendly production of ethanol on a sugarcane basis, building on a field research in the more recently developed cultivation areas in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. In doing so, we explore the co-production of the green framing of the sector in combination with technologies for a more climate-friendly agriculture and the political economy of land. Our investigation shows that the bioeconomy in the sugar-ethanol sector perpetuates the socio-ecological problems associated with the agricultural sector. These socio-ecological problems range from the increasing concentration of landownership to the negative impact of agrotoxins.

Highlights

Ever since the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) presented the very first bioeconomy strategy [1], various countries all over the world have adopted corresponding strategies for the implementation of a bioeconomy [2]
There are efforts to develop second-generation agrofuels based on recycling and waste materials such as plant fibre, in contrast to firstgeneration fuels made from plant components which are relevant to the food industry
In this paper we go beyond these research lacunae and focus on the following research question: How do land and working relations change in interrelation with technological innovations? Our aim is twofold: on the one hand, to clarify whether the bioeconomy continues the socio-ecological problems of agrofuels; on the other hand, we aim to provide an empirical contribution to the study of the social embedding of technological knowledge production by relating green innovations to the political economy of land relations in recently established cultivation areas

Summary

Introduction

Ever since the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) presented the very first bioeconomy strategy [1], various countries all over the world have adopted corresponding strategies for the implementation of a bioeconomy [2]. Bioenergies (power, heat and fuel generation based on biomass) are part of all bioeconomy strategy papers, while their significance and the extent of their funding varies in relation to the respective national or regional degrees of specialisation [3,4]. In this context, agrofuels are being reconceived as a subarea of bioenergy. Agrofuels as a substitute for fossil fuels came under fire due to the negative socio-ecological impacts of the expanding agro-industrial cultivation of corn, palm oil or soybean for energy production. There are efforts to develop second-generation agrofuels based on recycling and waste materials such as plant fibre, in contrast to firstgeneration fuels made from plant components which are relevant to the food industry

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