Janine Schildt 
Biodiesel to the rescue [PDF ebook] 
Can the Brazilian National Biodiesel Program encourage rural development and ease poverty in the northern regions of the country?

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics — Economic Policy, grade: 2, 0, Hertie School of Governance (Master of Public Policy), course: States and Markets, language: English, abstract: The Brazilian Biodiesel Program (PNBP) is set out to reduce poverty in the underdeveloped
Northern regions of the country. It encourages family agriculture from plants such as castor
and palm which are not suitable for plantation farming through government subsidies and
low interest credits. The PNBP would have the potentials to reach its goals, if its design and
its administration were not half-hearted and the program prone to be sacrificed to the
interests of the over-powering soy lobby. Without a more genuine dedication to its social
focus, the PNBP is set out to end as a reprint of the highly subsidized ethanol program
benefiting car-owners instead of the rural poor.