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Fair Trade Report:
Cooperation among cooperatives…
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| Sambazon Açai and
the Rainforest Drama |
by Ruth Ann Smalley
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The
Scene:
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Deep
in the rainforest, along the banks of the Amazon river. The Brazilian
state of Amapá. A heavily extractive economy— mining, timber and
cattle ranching—threatens the landscape. Huge portions of diverse
jungle have already vanished. Deforestation continues apace.
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The
Players:
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First,
the ribeirinhos, or river dwellers, who have long eked out a
subsistence at this wild edge where river and forest meet. Second, the
growing crowd of affluent health and beauty-conscious shoppers, eager
for the latest “superfood”: the nutritious açai berry, a staple
in the river dweller diet.
Third, the array of market suppliers working both to create and fulfill
this new consumer need.
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The
Question:
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How
can we ensure that the ribeirinhos can harvest açai as a
“non-timber forest product” for their own consumption and ours, in a
way that helps rather than harms the rainforest?
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The
Answer:
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We
need to make sure there’s enough toucan barf.
The açai palm is a wild tree. Harvesters must shimmy roughly 30
feet skyward to bring down ripe berry clusters. More açai
plantations are springing up, but nature’s method for distributing the
palms is by flying toucans spitting out the seeds (Purvis).
Researchers find that even many traditional growers are steadily
clearing the land around their açai trees, reducing biodiversity
and altering the canopy level. Intensive harvesting affects the
population of fruit-eating birds such as toucans and parrots (Weinstien
and Moegenburg).
If suppliers such as NuFruit have their way, toucans may be out of the
picture altogether. Eyeing growing competition, Nu- Fruit managing
director Jon Wisniewski is eager to “take açai from a wildfruit
to a plantation fruit,” and sees “fantastic potential for breeding to
produce a genetically superior fruit” (Starling).
This is where the efforts of a small band of 30-something California
surfers and entrepreneurs may mean the difference between a monoculture
nightmare and a healthy ecosystem, complete with regurgitating toucans.
At first glance, Sambazon doesn’t look like the usual Fair Trade
product purveyor. Co-founder Ed Nichols told me they’ve built their
approach around a “positive subversion”— the idea of “consumption
driving preservation.” They promote their açai products through
images of “cool beach culture and a California lifestyle.” Judging by
their profits, it seems to be working.
When asked why Sambazon featured fewer pictures of the farmers than the
typical fair trade website, Nichols told me they wanted to “build a
brand on the perceived coolness of it.” Then, maybe later, purchasers
would read the label and learn about Sambazon’s efforts toward
rainforest conservation. And they’ve certainly made plenty of efforts.
Along with membership in the Fair Trade Federation, Sambazon maintains
organic certification, and has just finalized their first audit with
Eco-Cert to be fully Fair Trade certified. Sambazon also partners with
both local and larger nongovernmental organizations such as the Nature
Conservancy and the World Wildlife Federation. They want to be a
positive force for forest stewardship, and monitor their growers
closely.
Sambazon has not only removed the middlemen, they’ve built their own
factory on site, employing up to a hundred local workers. Some are
illiterate, hired on the condition that they avail themselves of the
provided literacy program. Contracting to be one of the suppliers for
the 11,000 tons of açai Sambazon intended to process in 2008
raised a grower’s standard of living. The farmers, usually
2–3-generation families belonging to the local cooperative, drive their
boats right up to the dock to deliver the freshly harvested berries.
For this, Sambazon pays them 2–3 times the average market price.
Sambazon co-founder Ryan Black acknowledged recently that açai’s
popularity may itself endanger the forests, and his company is working
to counteract that: ‘”We want to look back [in] 20 years and see that
açai has been a positive force in the Amazon,” says Black, “not
just a fruit that became domesticated and found success at the price of
the local people and their environment” (McDonnell).
In a region that Nichols describes as “a lawless place—like the wild
west,” Sambazon’s relationships with farmers, the premium prices they
pay, and the requirement that this pay is for wild-crafted fruit, are
the Fair Trade practices that may constitute the best hope for the
river dwellers, the toucans and the rainforest.
Honest Weight Food Co-op carries Sambazon’s açai sorbet and
frozen smoothie packets, as well as organic açai supplements.
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References
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McDonnell,
Patrick J. 2008. “Açai has gone from staple of the Amazon to
global wonder-berry.” Los Angeles Times (September 21). Sambazon
website.
Nichols, Ed. 2008. Telephone interview (January 8).
Purvis, Andrew. 2007. “Can a smoothie save the rainforest?” Observer
Guardian (November 18).
Sambazon website. Sambazon Açai: www.sambazon.com.
Starling, Shane. 2007. “Açai positioned to tap fruitful market.”
www.nufruits.com/documents/news/Acaipositionedtotapfruitfulmarket.pdf
(February 7).
Weinstein, Stephanie, and Susan Moegenburg. 2004. “Açai Palm
Management in the Amazon Estuary: Course for conservation or passage to
plantations?” Conservation and Society, 2:2. http://www.conservationandsociety.org/c_s_2-2-7weinsten-new.pdf.
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