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BRAZIL: ICE CREAM STORES TEACH RESIDENTS ABOUT SAVANNAH.

Article Excerpt
By Mario Osava

GOIANIA, Brazil, Oct. 23, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- Caj -manga, gabiroba and araticum are just a few of the ice cream flavors that have been popularized by a chain of ice cream shops in Goiania, the capital of the Brazilian state of Goi s.

The three shops sell ice cream and popsicles flavored with native fruits from the Cerrado savannah, thereby supporting a sustainable fruit-gathering industry and raising awareness about the diverse savannah ecosystem, which is being threatened by the encroachment of industrial farms.

A fourth ice cream shop is soon to open in this city of 1.4 million. The shops are supplied by the family of Clcentsvis de Almeida, a 54-year-old former small farmer who struck it rich thanks to the knowledge of plants that he accumulated during his childhood and youth in the countryside of the central Brazilian state of Goi s.

The house where Almeida grew up "was a two-day horseback ride to the nearest town," 60 kilometers away, he said. And there were no pharmacies, so "we cured everything with medicines from the forest, while we hacked our own roads out of the wilderness."

When he became an adult, Almeida moved to Goiania, where he supported his wife and three children by selling ice cream from handcarts on the street.

He was doing well. But in 1990 he went broke when he was caught off guard by a government anti-inflationary plan, which froze bank...