I really enjoyed last week’s Rose Cafe with Andre Simores from the Mato Grosso do Sul State University in Brazil. During the talk, he touched on a multitude of topics related to his native country, but I particularly enjoyed two of the topics in particular, because I believe they can be related to events in our own country in recent times.

Simores mentioned how in Brazil, there exists fuel made from 100% sugar cane ethanol, and how this supports a vast agricultural industry while also reducing fossil fuel emissions. I mentioned that in the U.S., we also have fuel partially made from ethanol, although in our case, it’s made from corn. I have conflicted feelings about the use of ethanol. On one hand, as Brazil demonstrates, it can be quite effective in cutting down on pollution, but in the United States, it has caused a negative economic impact due to the existence of vast, unsustainable subsidies provided to agribusiness (I wonder if this is also the case in Brazil?). In the end, I think I would support its usage, although I wonder if there’s a way to easily break up agricultural oligopolies in existence.

I also asked Simores about the recent impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. He claimed that this was the exercise of democracy in a nation which had only recently transitioned from authoritarian rule, but qualified that the policies made by the Workers Party of Rousseff and her predecessor, Lula de Silva, had benefited many by bridging the divide between the poor and the rich. He also seemed to imply an impeachment had been politically motivated. I think this raises interesting questions about President Trump. Would it be fair to remove him from office, or would this be an abuse of our democratic institutions?