BRAZIL NUTS 1lb

Our Organic Raw Brazil Nuts are grown in the Madre de Dios region of Peru in the lush Amazonian rainforest at the intersection of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia ― one of the most fruitful Brazil nut production lands in the world.

Indigenous individuals from local Amazonian communities gather the wild Brazil nuts and bring them down river to a centralized market which is done with age-old techniques and in a pristine way, which allows the consumer to receive nuts of the utmost superb quality. These individuals are licensed to undertake such sustainable forest products harvesting as a part of a Peruvian governmental incentive program that allows them to do so in place of more non-sustainable activities such as slash and burn agriculture. We deal specifically with a large and constant group of nut gatherers that have been certified organic since 2000. The Brazil nut-rich forests that span the intersection of Amazonian Peru, Bolivia and Brazil are the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems. The region supports the greatest known densities of numbers of species of birds, butterflies and other animals. For example, a single square kilometer supports twice as many butterfly species as the entire United States and more than 10% of the entire world total.

Brazil nut trees are canopy-dominants that grow to 165 feet and have a life span of several hundred years. Their reproductive biology is extremely specialized and is dependent on a healthy forest ecosystem and its diversity of life. Pollination of this tree is so specialized that Brazil nuts have never been effectively grown in plantations. Metallic-green colored Euglossine orchid bees are required to pollinate Brazil nut flowers. The trees bear grapefruit-sized fruits that remain on the tree for 15 months and contain some 20 seeds (nuts) per fruit.

The fruits can only be opened by small rodents called agoutis that scatter the nuts around the forest by burying much of the crop. Agoutis may take the fruits a thousand feet away from the parent tree and often bury some of the seeds for the future. If the agouti forgets where its cache is, the seeds may germinate into seedlings. Thus the nuts may live to grow into seedlings, be eaten by rodents, rot, or end up being served at a party in the United States!

The people living in the Brazil nut-rich forests share a common resource base, a forested ecosystem of profound global biodiversity significance. Their quest for improving their lives will ultimately determine the fate of these forests and will have a significant impact on the health of the entire planet.

Castañales (Brazil nut harvesting concessions) offer one the few positive bottom-line economic examples where the density of a renewable natural resource other than timber is sufficient to justify the existence of large forested areas against unsustainable uses such as cattle ranching. Brazil nuts, which are opened up by harvesters within the primary forest, represent more than half the yearly income for thousands of families in the region, and so far have politically justified the protection of these natural areas. People can actually make a living harvesting these nuts from wild forests – a strong economic reason that keeps the trees standing.


OrganicLives supplies its customers with premium quality Brazil nuts harvested by families in Peru and Bolivia who greatly value and rely on healthy rainforests for their livelihood. Eating a Brazil nut (or splashing on some of OrganicLives's Brazil nut oil) literally saves the rainforest!


OrganicLives' Organic Brazil Nuts

OrganicLives’s truly-raw Brazil Nuts are unlike any other on the market. The extraordinary process begins when the large Brazil nut pods are carefully gathered by Indigenous people in a pristine part of the Rainforest.

Believe it or not, they bring the pods back on boats and deliver them to the processing facility – where they are paid a very fair price for their harvest. At the facility, the little “in-shell” nuts are removed from the large outer casing and carefully dried. Once dried, the smaller shells are cracked and the nut meat is taken out and packaged in vacuum-sealed bags.


Nutritional Benefits

• Brazil nuts are an excellent source of protein, containing nearly 20% by weight. Plus, they provide a full spectrum of amino acids – including vital performance boosters like methionine, arginine, glutamine and more.
• They’re rich in heart-healthy, monounsaturated oils – making them a nutritious, filling snack.
• Brazil nuts are rich in minerals, including hard-to-find ones like selenium, zinc, magnesium, thiamine, phosphorous, copper, iron and more.
• In fact, Brazil nuts are the highest food source of the anti-cancer mineral selenium – containing 2,500 TIMES MORE selenium than any other nut.




A Way for Companies to Give Back to the Rainforest

Purchasing OrganicLives Brazil nuts directly supports the indigenous Amazonian communities that harvest them. Over the years, the natives have perfected the harvesting of this nut from the unique ecosystem where these incredibly rare trees grow.

Most people don’t realize how rare Brazil nut trees actually are—pollination of these trees is so specialized that they’ve never, ever been successfully grown in plantations. As a consequence, if this precious rainforest land is destroyed, Brazil nuts cannot be grown anywhere else in the world.

Fortunately, the existence of a highly renewable natural resource –  like these Brazil nuts – is enough to justify the ongoing existence of such large forested areas. That’s why offering Brazil nuts to your customers is so positive. When you sell these nuts and use them in your products, it helps to preserve this precious land.


Customers Extremely Pleased With Quality of this Nut

We also have countless testimonials from customers saying that OrganicLives’s Brazil nuts are among the freshest, most delicious tasting nuts they’ve ever had. There’s a reason for this: Most brazil nuts are subjected to high heat during the drying process. But ours are not. The inside of the nut never exceeds 120 degrees, which keeps the oil, protein and original flavor of the nut pure and uncorrupted. Plus, they are stored in vacuum sealed bags and boxes – never exposed to damaging air or light.

That’s why several prominent living foods cafes and restaurants use thousands of pounds of our Brazil nuts each year  – in nut milks, deserts, pie crusts and many other recipes.