Rainforest Crunch, the candy and popular ice cream made with Brazil nuts, is an example of a new merchandising strategy known as green marketing.
Shoppers today, the theory goes, want products whose consumption somehow helps save the planet.
Developed by Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and the Boston-based organization Cultural Survival, the Rainforest Crunch scheme is intended to prove that it’s more profitable to keep the Amazon intact than to convert it to cattle ranches.
The plan is to give thousands of people who live and work in the forest a stake in preserving it. But some question whether this really is responsible development.
Narration is by Edward James Olmos, who hosted a series of 13 half-hour Vanishing Homelands specials.