Jennifer Eaglin will discuss her new book, Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol (Oxford University Press, 2022). Eaglin is a historian of modern Latin American energy development who joined Ohio State University as an assistant professor of environmental history/sustainability in 2016.
While most are aware of the US’ corn-based ethanol industry, Sweet Fuel traces the growth of the Brazilian sugar-ethanol industry from the 1930s to the creation of the National Ethanol Program (Proálcool) in 1975 to the launch of the flex-fuel engine in the 2000s and the labor and water pollution issues that came along with it. Eaglin’s work also has appeared in such journals as Environmental History and the Latin American Research Review.