Açaà berries are often
touted as a miracle health food, brimming with
antioxidants and, as a result, filling our smoothies.
But what's healthy for you and me is hell for
children in Brazilian families. Most of the
world's açaà comes from Brazil, where an estimated
120,000 families work the forest harvests to survive.
Picking açaà is an exploitative, deadly job for
underpaid families in the Amazon — one that's largely
performed by children as young as 9 years
old. The risks they face
include falling from 70-foot trees and being crushed,
paralyzed, or impaled by its branches, as well as
fending off scorpions, snakes, spiders, and venomous
bees. Countless
children have fallen to their deaths during the day's
work, or simply disappear, never to return
home.
Açaà berries sit at the
top of tall, thin trees that are too fragile for most
adults to climb, because the trees won't bear their
weight. Many parents are opposed to their children
picking açaÃ, but families often have no other
choice, and greedy middlemen take advantage of this by
underpaying the families for their harvests.
Some companies claim to only deliver "fair
trade" açaà harvested without child labor, but
experts reveal that's impossible: no such thing as
"fair trade" açaà exists. Any berry that you or I
eat most likely comes from an exploitative
system.
Right now, the supply chain is
simply too spread out to track any individual berry and
know where it came from. On top of that, Brazilian law
does not provide any labor protections that ensure a
livable wage for açaà harvesters or sufficient
regulations regarding child labor in the industry.
Luckily, some government officials are
determined to investigate these dangers and protect
children. But we must urge them to do even
more. Sign the petition to urge
Brazilian authorities to create government regulations
to protect açaà pickers — children and adults
alike!
