Each year, some 250,000 migrant workers flood into the state of Sao Paulo to cut sugarcane, most of them from poorer states in northeastern Brazil. Before chopping the cane with large machetes called facao, they burn huge swaths of cane fields to remove dry leaves and drive off snakes and other creatures. The cleared fields are easier to cut by hand, but the massive burns create choking clouds of smoke and ash.
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