Acai (Euterpe spp) and the loss of traditional knowledge

Session Chair: Pennie Magee

Pennie Magee,  PhD Magee Consulting International
Barbara Piperata, PhD Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University
Andrea Siqueira, PhD Department of Anthropology, Indiana University
Rui Murrieta, PhD Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Sao Paulo

Discussions of the global impact of food choices often touch upon the costs to the environment in terms of the “food miles” a crop travels from production to consumption. Less often discussed is what happens to the socioeconomic and cultural fabric of producing communities when external demand for a local, traditional food crop increases. This session presents a case study of the açaí palm (Euterpe spp) native to the Brazilian Amazon. Long a staple of the local diet, in the past decade açaí has become a hugely popular superfood, selling for record prices both within Brazil, as well as abroad. Data from two Amazonian peasant communities suggest that the increased urban and international demand for the fruit has played a key role in household economics, the gendered division of labor, dietary patterns and the transmission of traditional knowledge.