Source: https://wallhere.com/en/wallpaper/1604641w National Nut Day is celebrated annually on October 22. It was created by Liberation Foods Company, a United Kingdom based fair trade, farmer-owned company. Initially, their holiday was used as a medium to raise awareness about fair trade nuts and the small nut producers which grow them. However, in the last few years, this holiday has spread all over the world and is celebrated by nut fans everywhere. And why shouldn’t nuts be celebrated? After all, they’ve been a part of the human diet for hundreds of thousands of years and have great NUTritional value (see what I did there?).
Source: https://www.freepik.com/premium-vector/cute-happy-nuts-cartoon-character-peanut-hazelnut-walnut-brazil-nut-pistachio-cashew-pecan-almond-characters_8311218.htm
What’s interesting to note is that over the years, as more research has been done on the benefits of nuts, global nut consumption has been steadily increasing. A simple Google search to investigate the benefit of nuts will yield millions of results! An increase in nut consumption means an increase in demand, which means an increase in production to meet these demands.
Production of tree nuts worldwide from 2008/2009 to 2019/2020 (in million metric tons) Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030933/tree-nut-global-production/
Australia’s tree nut growers have been benefiting from rising health consciousness and global nut consumption. Domestic consumption of nuts and plant-based milk alternatives has also been growing, with consumers increasingly choosing dairy alternatives such as almond or soy milk.
Growing demand for plant-based milk substitutes over the past five years has significantly impacted almond sales, which account for over 60% of Australia’s tree nut production. Almond milk is one of the most nutritionally valuable milk substitutes, as it is free of saturated fat and cholesterol and rich in vitamins and minerals such as vitamin E, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, iron, fibre, zinc and calcium. Almond milk is now the second most popular milk alternative, and has grown the most over the past five years. However, all that goodness comes at a price, and if you're trying to be environmentally-friendly with your choices, almonds may not be the best choice. The only US state that produces almonds commercially is California, and they're not just sending almonds to domestic markets. More than 80 percent of the world's almonds come from California, and it's a multi-billion dollar industry. California, though, has relentless problems with drought. You've heard the horror stories of water shortages and wildfires — now consider that every single almond you eat took 1.1 gallons of water to grow. The growing almond industry has had something of a domino effect, impacting even the populations of salmon that are plagued by low water levels. And that might not be worth it.
Source: https://www.revealnews.org/article/answers-to-your-burning-california-drought-questions/ California's almond industry is also completely reliant on honeybees to pollinate its almond trees. The industry requires 1.4 million bee colonies, according to the USDA, most of which are brought to the state from across the country. Because of colony collapse disorder, honeybees are a commodity. In 2014, many of the mercenary pollinating bees brought to California died due to exposure to pesticides. Similarly, cashews are hugely popular nuts, and they're filled with things like fiber, protein, and all the standard good stuff that comes with nuts. But cashews come at a price, and it's paid by the people who harvest them. The majority of cashews come from India and Vietnam, and picking them isn't an easy process. Cashew apples have several tough layers that need to be discarded, and those layers secrete a reddish-brown liquid which contains cardol and anacardic acid, which inflict vicious burns and lesions on the workers who shell them by hand. These workers earn a pittance for shucking cashews, and many of them have suffered permanent damage from the toxic liquid that the shells release. An expose by Time magazine uncovered Vietnamese cashews are often the product of forced labor camps. There are over 120 "drug rehabilitation clinics" in Vietnam that are trapping over 40,000 drug addicts in forced labor camps. These persons sought refuge and help for their drug addictions, but instead most of them have been swept up into the business of "blood cashews" and are beaten and even tortured when they refuse to work 8-10 hour days.
How you can help Buy nuts which aren’t so harsh on the environment Hazelnuts are a great example of sustainable agriculture. Not only do they require little water and minimal upkeep, but they can thrive in harsh soils where other plants would fail. They're drought-resistant, can survive harsh weather conditions, have a high yield per plant, and help prevent soil erosion. They also have massive root system, and they remove a huge amount of carbon from the atmosphere. Peanuts and cashews are much easier on the environment than almonds or pistachios. It takes 19 times less water to grow half a kilo of peanuts than it does to grow the same amount of pistachios! Brazil nuts, meanwhile, can actually benefit the environment in some ways. Because they only grow well when surrounded by their natural, diverse ecosystem, harvesting Brazil nuts actually stops deforestation in the Amazon. Consume mindfully Instead of almond milk, which requires 6,098 litres of water to produce 1 litre, go for oat milk! Apart from being high on vitamins and minerals, its rich, neutral taste makes it a good substitute for dairy milk, and alongside soy milk, is the most environmentally friendly option.
Buy Fair Trade products
If you can, seek out organic, direct trade, or fair trade nuts. Do you remember Liberation Foods company, the one responsible for the birth of National Nut Day? Their mission is to do right by small nut farmers around the world. Farmers growing Brazil nuts, peanuts and cashews from Malawi, Brazil, India, El Salvador and other Third World countries came together to form a Fair Trade collective under Liberation Foods’ umbrella.
This means that all farmers get a decent price for their crops as well as a Fairtrade Premium to invest in community development projects. The Fairtrade system also helps to protect workers’ rights and promotes environmentally friendly farming.
There are many Fair Trade websites available, such as Nuts.com, which gives you a wide range of nuts to choose from, and you can even customize your order by selecting your preferred salt level, chocolate and roast. This is a great option especially if you live abroad.
Buy locally (where possible)
Cashews are exported to Trinidad and Tobago from India :( but they are grown commercially in Grenada, Guyana, Dominican Republic and Antigua and Barbuda. In Jamaica, a formal industry does not exist, however cashews are grown and processed for the local market, where they are sold fresh. Similarly, fresh cashews are grown and consumed in Haiti.
In Belize, a number of small agro-processors are involved in limited processing of cashew, which is used to create a variety of end products, including nuts, wines, confectionaries, pastries and flavour for ice cream (Caribbean Aqua-Terrestrial Solutions, 2014).
Local and regional nuts also don’t have to be shipped, quite literally, halfway around the world like Californian nuts do. This will do wonders for reducing our carbon footprint!
However, when local availability, fails, buying nuts grown anywhere other than California (such as Spain) is a step in the right direction. Macadamia nuts are native to Australia and because they are being grown in their natural environment, they don’t need an ungodly (and unreasonable) amount of water to thrive.
Hold companies accountable
Ultimately producers have far more power than we do to change things, so it’s about being vocal and asking them to do better. You can take the extra step to contact companies and ask about their nut supply chains. This includes companies who make vegan cheeses and dairy alternatives; these items categorically aren’t cruelty-free if they’re produced by people who are enslaved or tortured in any way.
I know all this information can seem a little overwhelming, but it’s not like you have to stop eating all of these things forever. It’s important to remember that no diet is perfect. All we can do is try our best to minimize our contribution to the problem, and ask producers to do better. We can have a more ethical food supply, but we need to be willing to acknowledge the issues and ask for progress. Sources: https://chooseliberation.com/about-liberation/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030933/tree-nut-global-production/ https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-insider/analyst-insights/milking-it-health-trends-support-demand-for-tree-nuts/ https://www.pedestrian.tv/bites/nuts-bad-for-environment-almonds-pistachios/ https://grist.org/food/what-are-the-most-eco-friendly-nuts/ https://www.mashed.com/74664/nuts-you-should-shouldnt-eating/?utm_campaign=clip https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/almonds-demon-nuts/379244/ https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/blood-cashews https://freedomforvietnam.wordpress.com/tag/blood-cashews/ https://nuts.com/tag/fair%20trade/ https://www.businessinsider.com/opinion-why-oat-milk-is-better-than-other-milks-2020-3#:~:text=Oat%20milk%27s%20remarkable%20staying%20power%20can%20be%20mainly,option%2C%20according%20to%20the%20BBC%27s%20environmental%20impact%20calculator. https://cats.carpha.org/Portals/1/images/2015/06/CATS-1-Caribbean-Cashew-Analysis-December-2014.pdf https://www.revealnews.org/article/answers-to-your-burning-california-drought-questions/
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