One quarantine obsession that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and brought popularity from TikTok and Pinterest worldwide is acai bowls. The dark purple thick smoothie is plated in a bowl topped with fruit and nuts in a specific order to be pleasantly pleasing to all the viewer’s eyes. People would scroll through their “For-You Page,” which would be smoothie tutorials one after another.
These smoothie bowls’ main ingredient is a frozen puree that comes from the açaí palm, but because of all the demands for this delicious tart fruit, it has had a devastating effect on the Amazon. There has been an increase in other plant loss and is changing the forest. While it has provided more money from the production, they don’t know if they can keep going at the rate they have to harvest the fruit. They are worried about the Amazon as a whole.
I remember seeing this smoothie on social media and was so excited to try making one myself. It only needed simple products that I could find at my nearby grocery store and a blender. After trying it, I knew why the media blew up over this new trend. It cleanses your thirst and is filling. I loved making them almost every morning over the summer. Still, after reading into the biodiversity loss because of the rising of acai obsession, I looked back and remember seeing these massive fridges full of boxes full of frozen puree and these jugs of acai juice. I never realized how this small round purple fruit plays a big part in the Amazon.
Small things can have a big impact on our world.
Credits:
Bennett, P. (2021, November 3). Açaí demand leads to biodiversity loss in the Amazon. EcoWatch. from https://www.ecowatch.com/acai-demand-biodiversity-amazon-2655488873.html#toggle-gdpr
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