Whole Life Times: Taste of Paradise

December 2004 | Conscious Business

Taste of Paradise

Two surfers share the pleasures and benefits of a sensuous Brazilian fruit

by Liz Finch

When surfers Ryan Black and Edmund Nichols first tasted the trendy local fruit açaí during a vacation in Rio de Janeiro, they were blown away by the flavor. They weren’t the only ones. Açaí was already becoming a hip food on Brazilian beaches for both its taste — a blend reminiscent of chocolate, wine and berries — and its clean, energizing effect.

“It’s delicious, but we were really amazed at how it made us feel,” recalls Black, a Southern California native. “It’s a fruit that has protein, fiber and a tremendous amount of omega fatty acids, while also having very little sugar. It’s the most complete, functional, whole food on the planet.”

After a little research, Black and Nichols discovered that açaí was more than a tasty, nutritious food source — it was also turning out to be the saving grace for the community inhabiting the Varzea Flooded Forests region of the Amazon. The community there had lost its fishing income when a local river was dammed 15 years ago. The growing popularity of açaí on the beaches gave them another resource to rely on, a resource that had the added benefit of being sustainable.

“The açaí palm tree is abundant in the forest, and it can be harvested for fruit and heart of palm,” Black explains. “The trees grow in a clump, with five to six trees growing from one root system, so we can harvest the fruit and the heart of palm without killing the tree.”

Black and Nichols realized that taking the fruit back to America was not only a great opportunity to share a healthy, exotic food, rich in phytonutrient concentrations, it was also a chance to teach the world about sustainable development. So in 2000, they formed Newport Beach-based Sambazon, the first worldwide supplier of açaí, which is sold in frozen pulp packs or as smoothies.

From the beginning, Sambazon (www.sambazon.com) has worn its heart on its sleeve — or at least its label. All packaging of açaí products features the phrase “people/planet/prosperity,” and a portion of all profits from product sales is directly reinvested into environmental and social programs within the Amazon.

“The locals are the stewards of the forest, and they provide the wild-harvested, fair trade and organic certified fruit to us,” Black says. “We also have about 25 employees in the United States and about 15,000 in Brazil. We are directly supporting more than 1,000 families and that is what we are most proud of.”

Already a Fair Trade Certified product, in 2005 the company plans to carry a new certification: the Forest Stewardship Council.

“That is really a label for the forest itself,” Black says. “We are taking care of the people there and pushing the envelope of sustainability at the same time.

“Our business model is about cooperation between several parts: local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international NGOs, the state and federal government of Brazil, the local cooperative and us,” he continues. “The beauty in this new model is that everyone is doing a part to drive the success of a greater good. The fruit is amazing by itself, but the business model is the real story.”

Liz Finch is a freelance writer based in West Hollywood. A fan of both chocolate and red wine, she can’t wait to try the exotic açaí.

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