#CASHEW NUT TREE SKIN#

The Ivory Coast has witnessed an incredible rise in cashew nut production over the same period of time: up from 280,000 tons a year in 2007 to 761,000 tons in 2018, according to Asoko Insight. Photo credit Emily Clark for the Daily Mail The global economic crisis of the last 12 years has pushed prices down even further. Once again, the true price of cheap imported products in Western supermarkets is paid elsewhere, and dearly, by workers in the Global South. Gloves would slow their shelling down, and they are paid by the kilo.вЂќДЄll this for less than в‚¬3 a day. Many donвЂ™t even get gloves,В and if they did, they probably couldnвЂ™t afford to wear them. They are employed without contracts, with no guarantee of steady income, no pension or holiday pay. вЂњBurns are a fact of life for up to 500,000 workers in IndiaвЂ™s cashew industry, nearly all women. In India meanwhile, the Daily Mail reported last year how, All this for вЂњa few dollars a monthвЂќ-all to ensure the lowest export prices possible to supermarkets in the West. Why might they refuse to work? Because the anacardic acid present in the fruit that cashew nuts grow from is caustic, and burns the skin. In Vietnam, reports going back as far as 2011 from Human Rights Watch and reported by Time suggest that drug addicts in forced-labor вЂrehabilitationвЂ™ camps are engaged in the production and processing, and вЂњthose who refuse to work are beaten with truncheons, given electric shocks, locked in isolation, deprived of food and water, and obliged to work even longer hoursвЂќ. The industry in each country, however, is marked by dangerous conditions and poverty-line wages for workers. Over half of the worldвЂ™s cashew new production is concentrated in just three countries: Vietnam, India, and the Ivory Coast. Why? Perhaps because if we knew what pain and misery lies behind our healthy snacks, we might not feel quite as content eating them. Though the potential risks involved in cashew production are mentioned, once again the focus is squarely on the possibility of danger (or lack thereof) to the consumer, and the people who pick these toxic nuts are obscured.

Because raw cashews are processed in such a careful and meticulous way, itвЂ™s rare that someone will accidentally consume a contaminated nut.вЂќ Photo credit Emily Clark for the Daily Mail

#CASHEW NUT TREE SKIN#

вЂњCashews themselves arenвЂ™t toxic, but they are surrounded by a shell that consists of the toxic oil urushiolвЂ¦ Coming into contact with urushiol can cause itching, blisters, and skin rashes. What you notice in these articles is an almost total lack of discussion on the production of cashew nuts-and there is nothing particularly unusual in this mystification of our foodsвЂ™ origins-though one blog does come close to touching upon an aspect of cashews that should make you think twice before buying them again: The same trends have also led to a massive rise in demand for cashew nuts ( anacardium occidentale), and the internet is awash with blog posts that praise them for their health benefits. Demand for the latter has exploded in recent years, driven by partly a rise in lactose intolerance, healthier dietary habits, and also, increasingly, by veganism. As has been discussed both here and elsewhere at length, thereвЂ™s a hidden world of environmental destruction and human misery behind some of the most in vogue food products in the Global North, from avocados to almonds.

Cashew nut tree