"Ethanol companies in Brazil's main decarbonization scheme have been fined for slave labor in blow to its sustainability claims".

"RIO DE JANIERO - When manual laborer Alison Moreira dos Santos moved across Brazil for a job on a sugarcane plantation in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais in March, he expected to work hard.

Just over a month later, the 35-year-old was dead.

Dos Santos had worked for a landowner supplying sugarcane to Usina Coruripe, a company that produces ethanol, a biofuel.

Following a tip-off, labor inspectors raided the plantation in late April. Dos Santos was part of a group of 10 workers who were ultimately adjudged by the officials to have been trafficked and subjected to "slavery-like" conditions."

Fabio Teixeira reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation October 25, 2022. [2]