Sugarcane Industry Expansion and Changing Rural Labour Regimes in Mato Grosso do Sul (2000–2016)

The objective of this chapter is to assess how the expanding production of biofuels as part of an emerging bioeconomy affects existing social inequalities in labour and land relations. A case study method was applied to investigate the growth of the sugarcane industry in Mato Grosso do Sul between 2000 and 2016. The analytical framework of social inequalities and a rural labour regime approach guided the research and data analysis. This chapter shows that the expansion of biofuels was propelled by an entanglement of global dynamics such as land grabbing and green development discourses, as well as national policies that fostered bioethanol production. The expansion of the sugarcane industry in Mato Grosso do Sul led to changes in existing labour regimes. The most striking changes were the increased but temporal semi-proletarianisation of peasants in agrarian reform settlements and the double exclusion of the Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people.