Meet the ‘babassu breakers’ on Brazil's 'new agricultural frontier'
by David Hill from on (#K2XM)
Plans for agro-industry expansion puts the livelihoods of thousands of women harvesting rare palm fruit at risk
What, you might ask, is a "babassu breaker"? That's my translation of "quebradeira de coco babaiu", a term used by an estimated several hundred thousand women in Brazil who gather and break open the fruit - no easy task - from a species of palm called babassu.
Many quebradeiras' aim is to use the entire fruit: the seed kernels for oil or milk, the mesocarp - the middle layer - for flour, and the husk for charcoal. The income generated from babassu-derived products is crucial to thousands of families' survival, while other parts of the palm find their way into roofs, fences and compost.
