Agriculture's Energy

“A compelling history . . . Rogers’s work proves the breadth of methodologies that environmental history can use to answer pressing questions about the means and goals of sustainability transitions in a context that prioritizes the monetization of solutions over the well-being of humans and the environment.”—Environmental History

“Deeply researched and pathbreaking. . . . Rogers elegantly details the human impact of Brazil’s development model.”_Agricultural History

“Rogers does an outstanding job tracing the historical complexities of the ethanol industry, which he demonstrates cannot be thought of in isolation from a larger narrative of agricultural modernization.”—Hispanic American Historical Review

“Agriculture’s Energy challenges us to seriously reconsider our approach to modern agriculture if we really want to solve the many global crises, from energy to climate to food security, that we face today.”—Journal of Social History

“Understanding what went wrong during Brazil’s first ethanol boom is critical because the country is currently in the midst of another, even as it models itself as a global leader in fighting climate change by producing renewable energy through low-carbon agriculture. Let’s hope that this important book is read widely beyond academia.”—i>The Americas

“Rogers demonstrates his prowess as a researcher through his analysis of development strategies in Brazil. His extensive archival research, complemented by interviews with influential policymakers and local business leaders, along with his long-term commitment to agro-environmental histories, have yielded innovative and well-substantiated outcomes.”—A Contracorriente

“In this deeply researched and carefully structured account, Rogers first locates Proálcool within the history of the Brazilian sugar industry and the nation’s broader ambitions for economic development and agricultural modernization. . . . Agriculture’s Energy invites reflection on one of the starkest contradictions of the Green Revolution.”—H-Environment

“Rogers’s book is essential for graduate students, social scientists, historians, and environmental historians interested in Latin American Long Cold War studies, being also, due to its clarity, a great reading for undergraduates concerned with new energy sources.”—Canadian Journal of Latin America and Caribbean Studies

“An important addition to a growing scholarly literature on late twentieth-century industrial agriculture. . . . [A]n invaluable contribution to Green Revolution scholarship and Brazilian studies.”—H-LatAm

“This urgent, humanist history of Proálcool teaches important lessons about the social implications of collective energy choices in an era of climate crisis. Emphasizing social structures, health issues, and power relations, Rogers demonstrates the great importance of a historical perspective in understanding the complexity of the energy challenges which the world is currently facing.”—Antoine Acker, Geneva Graduate Institute