“Sugar Pops” by Edward Robinson, May 2006 issue

Brazil, the largest sugar producer in the world, currently mandates that automobile fuels contain 25% of ethanol.   In 2005, half of Brazil’s 382-million-ton sugar cane harvest went into ethanol production (estimates by Datagro, a Sao Paulo-based research firm).

In the meantime, Volkswagen’s Brazilian operation is already manufacturing cars that run on pure ethanol, which costs about 20% less than gasoline…