Detail of the fabric used by Marcos Antonio Costa, 27, on his leg to climb an açaí palm tree to pick its fruit in the rainforest near Melgaco, southwest of Marajo island, Para state, Brazil, on this day June 6, 2020.
Tarso Sarraf / AFP via Getty Images
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Tarso Sarraf / AFP via Getty Images
Detail of the fabric used by Marcos Antonio Costa, 27, on his leg to climb an açaí palm tree to pick its fruit in the rainforest near Melgaco, southwest of Marajo island, Para state, Brazil, on this day June 6, 2020.
Tarso Sarraf / AFP via Getty Images
I ate the açaí berry, being one of those Americans who aspired to be healthier, especially if I could do it by tossing a few berries into a smoothie.
Açaí, which to me tastes a bit like dull blueberries, is said to be packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber. They are said to promote energy, healthy digestion and even fairer skin.
But how does the açaí fruit from the treetops of the Brazilian Amazon get into the açaís sold in San Francisco, Austin and West Des Moines?
Many are chosen by children.
This week a role model Reporting by Terrence McCoy in washington articles give faces and names to some of those young workers.
José Armando Matos de Lima is 11, his brother, Izomar, 10. The açaí palm trees are very slender and often over 60 feet tall. Most adults can catch them. So the boys weighed the tree with a belt knife and burlap wrapped around their feet.
Their father, João, 51, still climbs with them. But he fell from a tree a decade ago, and injured his back. Terrence McCoy said João’s feet were swollen and his body was scarred from acid spit by bees. He needed his sons to help choose açaí to support their family.
NS Post says an estimated 120,000 families in the Amazon region harvest açaí for a developing world market. The Fair for Life program awards fair trade certificates to companies engaged in the import and sale of açaí, under phrases such as “ethically sourced and hand-harvested”.
“But this is one of those situations where certification should not be allowed,” Charity Ryerson told NPR. She is the founder of Company Explanation Lab, investigating labor abuse. “Brazil’s Açaí is largely wild mining,” she said. “It is not clear what will be monitored and even who will determine where the harvesters are working or who they are working for.”
Manoel Potiguar, one of the authors of a 2016 study by state labor courts, told Post, “I’d say there’s a 90% chance that an açaí was eaten by someone in the United States was unfairly created.” Research shows that someone in almost every family that harvests açaí is injured – sometimes catastrophically.
It is difficult, and often frustrating, to trace the ethical origins of everything we eat. But once we know, can we turn away? Açaí berries can be beneficial to our health. But what harm do they do to small, immature hands that pick so much?
