More than 17,000 rural Brazilian farmers were to meet late Monday in the largest ever gathering of landless workers, concerned about the effects of energy production on land ownership, according to dpa. The fifth annual meeting of Brazil's Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), which goes until Friday, will focus on the impact of Brazil's ethanol boom and the expansion of agricultural businesses in the country, thought to be one of the main obstacles to reforming land ownership practices in rural areas. The movement - created 23 years ago - fears that the government- sponsored plan for producing ethanol and other bio-fuels will lead to ever-larger rural farming estates. Brazil, the world's largest ethanol producer along with the United States, produces the fuel from sugar cane.
