Dozens of small-scale farmers in Brazil’s São Paulo state will grow sugar cane certified as meeting strict social and environmental standards. Several ethanol companies, including Cosan Limited and Louis Dreyfus Commodities Brasil S/A, signed deals to produce and export verified sustainable ethanol in the last few months to address consumers’ concerns over the impact of ethanol and rising speculation in Europe over the sustainability of ethanol production. The program includes 50 small- and medium-scale cane suppliers ­ including some family farmers ­ who farm up to 3,500 hectares and produce an estimated 260,000 tons of cane per year. Production standards, set by the Organizacao Internacional Agropecuaria (OIA), a private inspections and certification company, require that farmers refuse child or slave labor, limit their use of agrochemicals, and gather their cane with mechanical harvesters rather than cutting it manually, which involves burning the plant’s foliage and polluting the air. All cane supplied under the program will by crushed at a mill that also produces according to the standards, and the entire process will be audited by an independent company.