Demand for Acai May Hurt Native Brazilians: How Fair is "Fair Trade?"

The açai berry is the fruit du jour in the U.S. Do a Google search for açaí and you'll get nearly 7 million hits. Found in juice blends, supplement capsules, health bars and energy drinks, açaí is touted for its health benefits. It's billed as absolutely the most healthy thing you could eat (or drink). A 2006 study by University of Florida researcher Dr. Stephen Talcott, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, showed that in the laboratory, açai extracts started a self-destruct response in as much as 86% of leukemia cells tested, although he cautioned that his research doesn't prove açai is a cure-all, nor did it prove it could prevent leukemia in people. Fellow scientist Joshua Bomser of Ohio State noted that while Talcott's research shows that research on foods not usually comsumed in the U.S. could be beneficial, simply increasing your consumption of fruits and vegetables will increase disease risk. Still, filled with antioxidants, Vitamin C, fiber and more, this little berry is certainly a lot of nutrition in a very small package.

Açai is grown on a palm tree, Euterpe oleracea, only in the Amazon basin of Brazil, and primarily around the city of Belém. The açai is a dark berry, described as having a cherry and blueberry, woody taste with an aftertaste of chocolate. Most of us will never know for certain, though, as açai isn't sold as fruit here, only as pulp or powder, or in juices, according to an article in Hub Pages.

Many of the companies that sell drinks containing açai state in their advertising that they are Fair Trade companies, and the money they pay for the açai they buy goes directly to the growers, who can then expand their crop. The New York Times, in an Aug. 4, 2004 article, reported on a company called Sambazon, which stands for Saving and Managing the Brazilian Amazon. The CEO of Sambazon, Ryan Black, is quoted as saying "The idea is to show the locals that it can pay off to become stewards of the forest." While Sambazon buys from 750 families in four cooperatives in the Várzea Flooded Forest, their market share is les than 2 percent. Some açai growers slash and burn, then plant only açaí. Middlemen make money by ferrying berries down the Amazon (see National Geographic's October 2008 issue for photos); the caption of one photo notes that "conservationists fear skyrocketing demand for (açaí) could hurt Amazon forests." In addition, the work of harvesting increases the risk of an infection carried by sand flies, which can take years to recover from.

Most Americans and Europeans don't understand the diet of the poor of the rainforest. They subsist primarily on root crops like manioc and sweet potatoes, along with fish from the river. The fish catch is steadily decreasing due to deforestation and subsequent soil erosion, which ends up silting the river and killing off the fish, as well as pesticides used in rubber plantations, which also kill fish. Aluízio Solyno of the Federation of Social and Educational Organs, a non-government organization helping growers in the Amazon basin, is quoted in the New York Times article, saying, "... a poor person who lives on the outskirts of Belém and eats açai every day isn't (benefiting from the sales of açaí or Sambazon's higher payment to growers)."

I've been told by Melissa Renner, a long-time Belém resident, now back in the U.S., that the drink made in the Amazon from the açaí tastes vile to American palates, but that the people who grew up there love it. It's consumed in a sort of smoothie drink, although obviously not a cold one, that mixes açai with other fruits and sometimes with goat milk. Mothers try to make sure that their children have a big glass of it every day. And that's where the problem arises, a problem that the manufacturers and distributers of açai drinks in this country would rather you not know about.

The supply of açai is limited by the relatively small area in which it grows, and the price is increasing due to the new demand in Brazilian cities and the international demand. The more popular it becomes outside of the Amazon basin, the less açai there is, and the more expensive it has become, for the people who depend on it, and who have no other resource that provides the nutritional benefit of the açaí.

The people of the United States have an abundance of fruit and juices grown in our country, which thanks to our transportation system, is available all over the country. As Dr.Bomser pointed out, we already have the fruits, if consumed in the basic quantity described by nutritionists, that will accomplish what an açaí product can. Vitamin supplements are also available everywhere, and are included in foods like baby formula and even milk. By using the açai as a special health drink here, not to mention as a cocktail, we may be depriving the poorest population of a critical food supply, even as we increase the local economy.

In an article in the Columbia (Ohio) Tribune, dated June 20, 2007, clinical dietitian Melinda Hemmelgarn poses questions consumers "should consider before buying" products like açaí. Are its nutrients unique and worth paying extra for? "Does nutritional value vary among products?" (remember that as supplements, products containing açaí aren't regulated by the FDA or any other body, so consumers can't know what they're buying). And finally, "How will harvetsing and importing the (açaí) berries impact the native people in the region? Will the high U.S. demand for açaí harm the local diet because there is a limited supply?"

My father often quoted the old adage, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Will the açaí berry become the wonder food of the century? It has a greater concentration of some nutrients per gram, and less sugar per gram than any other fruit known, but the only clinical researcher to date, Dr. Stephen Talcott, urges caution. Ms. Hemmelgarn, an advocate for sustainable foods, suggests that until there is more scientific evidence, we should leave the açaí to the Brazilians, and eat the fruits and vegetables we can grow "right in our own backyard."

Sources:

http://news.ufl.edu/2006/01/12/berries ; http://www.acaiberryinfo.org/news/more-acai-research-following-cancer-related-study-18.html

www.acaibaerryinfo.org/news/acai-berry-demand-may-create-negative-effects-22.html

Los Angeles Times article, Novemer 14, 2008

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/photogalleries/missions-amazon-fruit-photos/photo6.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/Where-acai-berries-come-from--the-Acai-palm-in-Brazil

http://www.powersupplements.com/acai/a-nyt1.html

Melissa Renner, personal communication, November 2009; http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/jun/20070602life004.asp )