Clustered high up in the slender, tilting palms of the eastern Amazon, the little purple orbs known as acai look mighty, like blueberries that took a very wrong turn out of Maine. These are no mere muffin makers, though.
Virtually unknown outside the Amazon two decades ago, and until 2000 not exported from Brazil, its major producer, acai (pronounced ah-sigh-EE) is now an international celebrity, riding the wave of the antioxidant craze and rainforest chic. On the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, surfers seeking an energy boost spoon acai smoothies from bowls. In the United States, companies touting its antioxidant powers blend the fruit into Snapple red tea; Red Brick Pizza’s frantically trendy multigrain, whole-wheat artisan crust; and everything from dietary supplements to beauty products.
But for families who live here along the winding, interlaced rivers at the hub of acai production, the fruit has long been a vital part of their diet, a cheap way to fill up and a taste of home. And now, for some, it is a source of newfound prosperity.
In places like Cameta, a town of about 117,000, and Belem, the capital of Para State, a bowl of acai pulp is a filling side dish especially valued by poorer families.
Unlike the pulp used in Rio’s smoothies, the kind here is not pre-sweetened or frozen, but fresh from cylindrical machines known as batedores de acai, “acai beaters,” that remove the thin layer of fruit from the pit. Most every neighborhood has stands or small stores where customers get a daily or weekly supply.
Acai’s international reputation as an energy booster and diet aid tickles those who grew up with it as a caloric side dish.
“I find it funny,” said LetÝcia Galvao, a psychologist who was having a lunch of seafood and acai with her husband and 1-year-old daughter at a restaurant called Point do Acai. “Generally, when you have acai here, you take a nap. There, it’s an energy drink.”
Galvao said that her brother, a doctor living in the southern state of Parana, wasn’t a big acai fan growing up. But these days he asks anyone visiting him from Belem for a liter of the fresh stuff.
“Acai has the taste of our land,” she said. “It’s a way of reconnecting. It’s a taste of childhood.”
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Dinner in the Amaxzon
rainforestpower Headline Animator
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Rainforest: Big business leaves big forest footprints
Consumers around the globe are not aware that they are "eating" rainforests, says Andrew Mitchell.
In this week's Green Room, he explains how many every-day purchases are driving the destruction of the vital tropical ecosystems.
Burning tropical forests drives global warming faster than the world's entire transport sector; there will be no solution to climate change without stopping deforestation
When was the last time you had a "rainforest picnic"? Or even, perhaps, an "all-day Amazon breakfast"?
Next time you are in a supermarket picking up a chicken sandwich for lunch, or fancy tucking in to a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage and bacon before setting off for work, spare a thought for the Amazon.
A new report by Forest Footprint Disclosure reveals for the first time how global business is driving rainforests to destruction in order to provide things for you and me to eat.
But it does also reveal what companies are doing to try to lighten their forest footprint. Sadly, however, the answer is: not much, at least not yet.
Consumers "eat" rainforests each day - in the form of beef-burgers, bacon and beauty products - but without knowing it.
The delivery mechanism is a global supply chain with its feet in the forests and its hands in the till.
Read More
In this week's Green Room, he explains how many every-day purchases are driving the destruction of the vital tropical ecosystems.
Burning tropical forests drives global warming faster than the world's entire transport sector; there will be no solution to climate change without stopping deforestation
When was the last time you had a "rainforest picnic"? Or even, perhaps, an "all-day Amazon breakfast"?
Next time you are in a supermarket picking up a chicken sandwich for lunch, or fancy tucking in to a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage and bacon before setting off for work, spare a thought for the Amazon.
A new report by Forest Footprint Disclosure reveals for the first time how global business is driving rainforests to destruction in order to provide things for you and me to eat.
But it does also reveal what companies are doing to try to lighten their forest footprint. Sadly, however, the answer is: not much, at least not yet.
Consumers "eat" rainforests each day - in the form of beef-burgers, bacon and beauty products - but without knowing it.
The delivery mechanism is a global supply chain with its feet in the forests and its hands in the till.
Read More
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Amazon deforestation 'record low'
Brazil's disappearing rainforests have been a concern for decades
The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil's government says.
According to the latest annual figures, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009.
The drop is welcome news for the government in advance of the Copenhagen summit on climate change.
But Greenpeace says there is still too much deforestation and the government's targets are not ambitious enough.
According to the Brazilian space agency, which monitors deforestation in the Amazon, the annual rate of destruction fell by 45%.
Green credentials
Welcoming the news, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the drop in the level of deforestation as "extraordinary".
He said climate change was the most challenging issue the world was facing.
Read more:
The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil's government says.
According to the latest annual figures, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009.
The drop is welcome news for the government in advance of the Copenhagen summit on climate change.
But Greenpeace says there is still too much deforestation and the government's targets are not ambitious enough.
According to the Brazilian space agency, which monitors deforestation in the Amazon, the annual rate of destruction fell by 45%.
Green credentials
Welcoming the news, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the drop in the level of deforestation as "extraordinary".
He said climate change was the most challenging issue the world was facing.
Read more:
Friday, February 5, 2010
Sambazon Acai: Results from Pilot Study Earned Top Honors
A new clinical trial investigating the health benefits of açaí, the antioxidant and vitamin-rich berry, is adding to the emerging scientific evidence of the fruit’s ability to potentially reduce some metabolic risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke. The latest study won top honors during the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine on January 23 and revealed promising initial results for using Sambazon açaí to improve vascular health, lower fasting blood sugar levels, and lower bad cholesterol.
“This pilot study demonstrated the ability of the Sambazon açaí pulp product to significantly lower several markers of cardiovascular risk in a relatively short period of time. Given these promising results, and the biologically active components in the açaí fruit, further study is merited,” said Dr. Jay Udani, MD, CEO and Medical Director of Medicus Research, a leading contract research organization with functional food experience.
Medicus Research recently conducted a pilot study with 10 slightly overweight, but healthy adult male and female participants (representing 1/3 of the American population). Each study participant consumed 100 grams of Sambazon® açaí frozen fruit pulp twice daily for one month. Researchers measured participants’ baseline fasting plasma glucose, plasma insulin levels, lipid levels (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides), high sensitivity C-reactive protein and blood pressure. After 30 days of consuming Sambazon® açaí, participants’ fasting glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, and LDL (bad cholesterol) were significantly reduced, as compared to the baseline. In addition, post-prandial (between meals) increases in blood glucose levels were significantly reduced.
“While additional research is needed, this pilot study suggests that in otherwise healthy, overweight adults, daily consumption of Sambazon açaí reduces several markers of metabolic syndrome associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke,” said Jack F. Bukowski, MD, Ph.D., a former Harvard professor and currently Director of the Nutritional Science Research Institute.
Read more: here
“This pilot study demonstrated the ability of the Sambazon açaí pulp product to significantly lower several markers of cardiovascular risk in a relatively short period of time. Given these promising results, and the biologically active components in the açaí fruit, further study is merited,” said Dr. Jay Udani, MD, CEO and Medical Director of Medicus Research, a leading contract research organization with functional food experience.
Medicus Research recently conducted a pilot study with 10 slightly overweight, but healthy adult male and female participants (representing 1/3 of the American population). Each study participant consumed 100 grams of Sambazon® açaí frozen fruit pulp twice daily for one month. Researchers measured participants’ baseline fasting plasma glucose, plasma insulin levels, lipid levels (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides), high sensitivity C-reactive protein and blood pressure. After 30 days of consuming Sambazon® açaí, participants’ fasting glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, and LDL (bad cholesterol) were significantly reduced, as compared to the baseline. In addition, post-prandial (between meals) increases in blood glucose levels were significantly reduced.
“While additional research is needed, this pilot study suggests that in otherwise healthy, overweight adults, daily consumption of Sambazon açaí reduces several markers of metabolic syndrome associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke,” said Jack F. Bukowski, MD, Ph.D., a former Harvard professor and currently Director of the Nutritional Science Research Institute.
Read more: here
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Belo Monte dam moves step closer
Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest.
Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups.
However, the government says whoever is awarded the project will have to pay $800m to protect the environment.
The initial approval was a key step before investors could submit bids.
Resignations
The proposal to build a hydro-electric dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para, has long been a source of controversy.
The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world.
The government says the scheme has been modified to take account of fears that it would threaten the way of life of the indigenous peoples who live in the area.
Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc revealed that those who win the bidding process to build and operate Belo Monte will have to pay millions of dollars to protect the environment and meet 40 other conditions.
However, critics say diverting the flow of the Xingu river will still lead to devastation in a large area of the rainforest and damage fish stocks.
They say the lives of up to 40,000 people could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded.
When it is completed, Belo Monte would be third largest hydro-electric dam in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay. It is expected to provide electricity to 23 million Brazilian homes.
With Brazil's economy continuing to show signs of growth, ministers say hydro-electric plants are a vital way to ensure power supplies over the next decade - and at least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region.
Full story here
Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups.
However, the government says whoever is awarded the project will have to pay $800m to protect the environment.
The initial approval was a key step before investors could submit bids.
Resignations
The proposal to build a hydro-electric dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para, has long been a source of controversy.
The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world.
The government says the scheme has been modified to take account of fears that it would threaten the way of life of the indigenous peoples who live in the area.
Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc revealed that those who win the bidding process to build and operate Belo Monte will have to pay millions of dollars to protect the environment and meet 40 other conditions.
However, critics say diverting the flow of the Xingu river will still lead to devastation in a large area of the rainforest and damage fish stocks.
They say the lives of up to 40,000 people could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded.
When it is completed, Belo Monte would be third largest hydro-electric dam in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay. It is expected to provide electricity to 23 million Brazilian homes.
With Brazil's economy continuing to show signs of growth, ministers say hydro-electric plants are a vital way to ensure power supplies over the next decade - and at least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region.
Full story here
Monday, February 1, 2010
Amazon revolution? - Lost Cities
One of the many Hollywood films that will hit theatres this year is "The Lost City of Z," in which a group of explorers set out to find a colleague who vanished in the Amazon rainforest.
Based on a true story, the movie stars Brad Pitt as Percy Fawcett, a world-famous British explorer who disappeared in 1925, during an expedition to find the mythical city of El Dorado, which Fawcett codenamed "Z" to keep his plans secret.
The premise of the movie, and its name, are taken from a book by David Grann, who retraced Fawcett's route through the Amazon to investigate what happened to him.
Along the way, Grann learned of a group of archeologists who are unearthing evidence that, just as Fawcett believed, there were indeed large communities thriving in the Brazilian rainforest before Europeans arrived.
As the evidence mounts, it's challenging conventional wisdom of the Amazon as a place so inhospitable it could only support small, nomadic tribes.
Instead it seems that large, complex societies may have tamed parts of the Amazon centuries before Spanish explorers sailed across the Atlantic. As that idea gains momentum, it's also gaining more attention beyond archaeological circles.
"There is now becoming, not just in the scientific and academic work but in the public world, a sense of the breadth of these discoveries," Grann told CTV.ca from New York. "They're transforming our view of what the Americas looked like before Columbus."
"It's finally kind of breaking through."
Turning point
Last month, a major archeological find was published in the British journal Antiquity. Using Google Earth and other satellite imagery, researchers found 260 geometrical shapes dug into a now-deforested 250-kilometre stretch of the upper Amazon basin.
"We know they're spread over this wide region and they display very similar construction techniques," said Denise Schaan, an archeologist from Brazil's University of Para who co-authored the study. "So if it was not a single people building them, they had a kind of culture or religion that was spread over that territory."
"We want to know who built these structures and for what reason," Schaan added, speculating that they could have been fortified villages or ceremonial centres.
Some of the earthworks may date as far back as AD 200, a millennium before the Incan empire was founded. As many as 60,000 people lived in or near the "perfect circles, rectangles and composite figures" carved into the ground, the researchers reported. And many were linked by bridges or "avenue-like" roads.
What's more, Schaan and her colleagues suspect there could be 10-times as many earthworks in surrounding areas, where the jungle is still standing.
The people who inhabited the sites disappeared around the same time that Spanish conquistadors ventured into South America, suggesting that diseases from Europe may have wiped them out.
A number of earlier discoveries suggest the Amazon was by no means virgin rainforest before the Age of Discovery began.
Archaeologists came across a series of 127 granite blocks on a Brazilian hilltop in 2006. Some of the blocks appear to be arranged astrologically, and may have been placed there as long as 2,000 years ago. The site has become know as the Stonehenge of the Amazon.
To read more click here
Based on a true story, the movie stars Brad Pitt as Percy Fawcett, a world-famous British explorer who disappeared in 1925, during an expedition to find the mythical city of El Dorado, which Fawcett codenamed "Z" to keep his plans secret.
The premise of the movie, and its name, are taken from a book by David Grann, who retraced Fawcett's route through the Amazon to investigate what happened to him.
Along the way, Grann learned of a group of archeologists who are unearthing evidence that, just as Fawcett believed, there were indeed large communities thriving in the Brazilian rainforest before Europeans arrived.
As the evidence mounts, it's challenging conventional wisdom of the Amazon as a place so inhospitable it could only support small, nomadic tribes.
Instead it seems that large, complex societies may have tamed parts of the Amazon centuries before Spanish explorers sailed across the Atlantic. As that idea gains momentum, it's also gaining more attention beyond archaeological circles.
"There is now becoming, not just in the scientific and academic work but in the public world, a sense of the breadth of these discoveries," Grann told CTV.ca from New York. "They're transforming our view of what the Americas looked like before Columbus."
"It's finally kind of breaking through."
Turning point
Last month, a major archeological find was published in the British journal Antiquity. Using Google Earth and other satellite imagery, researchers found 260 geometrical shapes dug into a now-deforested 250-kilometre stretch of the upper Amazon basin.
"We know they're spread over this wide region and they display very similar construction techniques," said Denise Schaan, an archeologist from Brazil's University of Para who co-authored the study. "So if it was not a single people building them, they had a kind of culture or religion that was spread over that territory."
"We want to know who built these structures and for what reason," Schaan added, speculating that they could have been fortified villages or ceremonial centres.
Some of the earthworks may date as far back as AD 200, a millennium before the Incan empire was founded. As many as 60,000 people lived in or near the "perfect circles, rectangles and composite figures" carved into the ground, the researchers reported. And many were linked by bridges or "avenue-like" roads.
What's more, Schaan and her colleagues suspect there could be 10-times as many earthworks in surrounding areas, where the jungle is still standing.
The people who inhabited the sites disappeared around the same time that Spanish conquistadors ventured into South America, suggesting that diseases from Europe may have wiped them out.
A number of earlier discoveries suggest the Amazon was by no means virgin rainforest before the Age of Discovery began.
Archaeologists came across a series of 127 granite blocks on a Brazilian hilltop in 2006. Some of the blocks appear to be arranged astrologically, and may have been placed there as long as 2,000 years ago. The site has become know as the Stonehenge of the Amazon.
To read more click here
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