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Why People Risk Their Lives To Harvest A莽a铆 | True Cost | Business Insider - YouTube
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[3]
harvesting acai is a dangerous job in
[6]
brazil
[7]
workers climb thin palm trees deep in
[10]
the amazon rainforest
[14]
new
[16]
[Music]
[21]
these berries have become one of the
[23]
most popular so-called superfoods in the
[25]
u.s
[26]
and they aren't cheap
[28]
one bowl can cost up to 15 dollars
[31]
and while the berry has exploded in
[33]
popularity in recent decades small farms
[36]
like this haven't really been able to
[38]
cash in
[42]
a community
[45]
to this day most acai in brazil is
[47]
harvested by families on small-scale
[49]
farms
[52]
but big plantations are on the rise
[54]
putting pressure on families like lucas
[56]
nogueiras and a way of life that goes
[58]
back generations
[68]
so how did this amazonian fruit become
[70]
so trendy and what is the true cost for
[73]
the people who have been harvesting it
[74]
for generations
[76]
[Music]
[88]
we met lucas at the end of the 2021
[91]
harvest but there were still some
[92]
berries left on a few trees
[96]
his family's farm is roughly 70 miles
[98]
from balang the capital of the state of
[100]
para which grows more than 90 percent of
[102]
the acai produced in brazil
[106]
the only tool they use to climb is a
[108]
single piece of rope called a peconia
[111]
they used to be made of leaves
[133]
today lucas's son louise fernando will
[135]
go up
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what should we do
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the trunks are so thin that climbers
[144]
have to be lightweight
[150]
hey
[156]
at the top they swing from the tree to
[158]
reach multiple bunches
[161]
[Music]
[175]
going down can be dangerous too
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especially while carrying a large knife
[180]
and holding an arm full of branches
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dropping them could damage the fragile
[186]
fruit
[196]
number
[199]
and the risks don't end at the climb as
[202]
if i mentioned chanda and this is nasa
[204]
zarya
[208]
cobra
[220]
lucas and his family harvested 53
[222]
baskets like these in 2021 earning them
[225]
an income of about 950
[228]
that's as little as 20 cents per pound
[231]
meanwhile a pound of processed acai
[233]
sorbet can sell for seven dollars or
[235]
more in the us
[238]
part of the issue is that lucas has to
[240]
sell his acai as soon as possible
[243]
because the fruit goes bad fast that
[245]
leaves farmers who don't have processing
[247]
machines with little leverage to
[248]
negotiate
[267]
it's a race against the clock to sell
[269]
the fruit before it spoils so markets
[271]
run
[280]
overnight the price of the baskets
[283]
varies every day depending on the demand
[291]
most of the acai produced in the state
[293]
stays in brazil but exports have
[296]
skyrocketed growing about 14 000 between
[299]
2011 and 2020
[308]
[Music]
[317]
transported to processing facilities
[319]
like north acai
[321]
every day 22 tons of fruit are turned
[324]
into frozen pulp the acai that most
[326]
people outside of pera are familiar with
[336]
this is the stage where we see the
[337]
biggest jump in price about a hundred
[339]
and seventy seven percent
[342]
[Music]
[363]
today more than 70 of brazil's acai
[366]
exports end up in the states
[379]
present the global market for acai is
[381]
expected to reach nearly 2.1 billion
[384]
dollars by the end of 2025
[394]
acai's popularity took off in other
[396]
brazilian states in the 1980s when it
[399]
became part of workout culture in rio
[401]
and sao paulo the bulls made regular
[404]
appearances in this popular 90s soap
[406]
opera that took place at a gym
[409]
its high calorie content made it a
[411]
perfect pre or post exercise food
[414]
and its antioxidants made it easy to
[416]
brand a superfood that came with claims
[418]
that it can solve all sorts of health
[420]
issues like obesity type 2 diabetes
[423]
coronary heart disease strokes
[425]
hypertension
[427]
high risk for coping 19
[430]
cognitive difficulties
[432]
sexual difficulties but nutritionists
[435]
say this narrative has been blown out of
[437]
proportion wait a minute one food can't
[440]
do that can it no of course not
[443]
nonetheless americans were hooked and
[445]
made all kinds of acai bowls mixing in
[448]
fruit granola honey and more
[451]
but it's a far cry from the culture of
[453]
the people who have eaten it for much
[454]
longer
[456]
indigenous people living in the amazon
[458]
have harvested and consumed acai for
[460]
centuries maybe even millennia and it's
[463]
still a staple food in the daily diet of
[465]
people in pera who eat it fresh with
[467]
savory meals
[472]
lucas was 12 when he started climbing
[474]
acai trees and he still does 36 years
[478]
later
[497]
in recent years acai has also made
[500]
headlines in american and brazilian
[502]
media for reports of children working in
[504]
the industry but farmers like lucas say
[506]
it's always been this way and that it's
[508]
normal for everyone in the family to
[510]
help out and learn the trade
[520]
nowadays lucas owns this land along with
[522]
55 other families
[525]
these kinds of settlements are called
[526]
kilombos or a kilumbola community and
[529]
many go back centuries
[532]
they were established by enslaved
[534]
africans and afro-descendants who ran
[536]
away into the jungle and started
[538]
communities like this to survive
[542]
many learned from indigenous people how
[543]
to harvest and process native foods
[545]
including acai
[548]
the brazilian government estimates there
[549]
are nearly 6 000 kilomola communities in
[552]
the country
[553]
in a 2013 study found roughly 75 percent
[557]
still lived in extreme poverty
[569]
lucas's acai trees grow alongside
[571]
different native trees and plants
[574]
but larger monoculture plantations that
[576]
produce more fruit are on the rise the
[579]
amount of land used for these
[580]
plantations has more than tripled since
[582]
two thousand six
[590]
these plantations are often located far
[593]
away from floodplains where acai trees
[595]
naturally thrive that means big
[597]
producers have to irrigate their acai
[599]
trees while farmers like lucas rely on
[602]
natural seasonal flooding from the
[603]
nearby river
[612]
some small producers have also been
[614]
favoring acai trees over others which
[616]
could become an issue in the long run
[620]
and experts worry that as acai's
[621]
popularity continues to grow the
[623]
cultural traditions of pura and the
[625]
amazon could be lost
[637]
[Music]
[642]
is something lucas and many people here
[644]
take pride in
[648]
love
[657]
[Music]
[669]
[Music]
[687]
[Music]
[695]
foreign
[696]
[Music]
[704]
you
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