Identifying social impacts of sugarcane production in Brazil through content analysis and Social Hotspots Database

Brazil as the world's largest sugarcane producer has witnessed a rapid expansion of its sugarcane sector. However, sugarcane production in Brazil has been criticized for its questionable records on environmental and social... [ view full abstract ]

Brazil as the world's largest sugarcane producer has witnessed a rapid expansion of its sugarcane sector. However, sugarcane production in Brazil has been criticized for its questionable records on environmental and social sustainability due to the issues such as pre-harvest field burning, poor working conditions of field workers, and migrant workers. Social hotspots database (SHDB) is one of the first database providing information on the social risks along supply chains. The objectives of this paper are twofold: to identify the social hotspots in the supply chain of sugarcane production in Brazil, and to examine the effectiveness of SHDB in identifying social hotspots, by comparing the results derived from SHDB and through a systematic analysis of the relevant publications. Content analysis was used to examine over 60 publications related to the social impacts of sugarcane production in Brazil including peer-reviewed articles in English and Portuguese, the “grey literature”, NGO reports, conference presentations and sustainability reports. Qualitative data analysis software NVivo 8 was applied to facilitate the analysis of the samples. A deductive category system was established based on the subcategories recommended in the UNEP/SETAC social life cycle assessment guidelines. The relative frequencies of each subcategory coded in the samples were computed and reported. Inter-rater and intra-rater agreements were also assessed to ensure the reliability of the results. The results of content analysis identify a list of social issues mostly mentioned in the literature, which are assumed to be the social issues of the greatest concerns, i.e. social hotspots. Social impacts of sugarcane production in Brazil were modeled in the SHDB, and the results were compared with those of the content analysis. It is found that most of the social hotspots included in the SHDB were also identified in the content analysis. However, a number of social hotspots identified in the content analysis were not captured in the SHDB, including the subcategories of local employment, social benefits and social security, and delocalization and migration. A list of social issues combining the results of SHDB and content analysis was generated and detailed information was documented to provide a comprehensive picture of the social impacts of sugarcane production in Brazil.