Raw Brazil Nuts

These are the best raw, organic Brazil nuts we've tasted. Brazil nuts are collected from conservation reserves in the wilderness of the Amazon rainforest. Brazil nuts are best known for being the number one plant source of the antioxidant mineral selenium. Brazil nuts have approximately 2,500 times as much selenium as any other nut. It is a great raw food and can be used in many ways such as, live pizza crusts or cosmic chocolate beverages.

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 species densities of birds, butterflies and a number of 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.

Brazil nut harvesting offers 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! Natural Zing supplies its customers with premium quality raw organic 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 our Brazil nut oil) literally saves the rainforest!

Net Wt: 16 oz