Palo and I ended that "desperation" trip with a lot of memories, relationships and açai. Lots of açai. We were on our way to building more happy relationships across the Americas and in the Amazon. In fact, that trip eventually led to Bossa Nova creating the world's largest açai joint venture. Two of the three largest açai producers, with five total locations in Brazil, recently merged factories across the Amazon to harvest the world's only year-round, large-scale fresh açai supply sourced from co-ops that value permaculture land use principles.

We also set the stage for Save-A-Tree, a program I conceived for my first business plan, to evolve to the next level. SAT in its first form donated the amount needed to save one rainforest tree per bottle of juice sold, through acreage protection. But as anyone involved in the Amazon knows, protecting and defending land is a very difficult task. The more sustainable approach we discovered is by supporting the health of communities, as well as direct land use stewardship over specific pristine rainforest in at-risk areas. When people on the land realize they can make a decent living and maintain the rainforest's natural riches, both people and land benefit.

As açai becomes a valuable commodity, there are concerns that the rainforest's biodiversity will be turned into açai-only monoculture. But biodiversity is exactly what makes those areas' super-nutritious crops thrive. Save-A-Tree will now include community education about sustainable economic development, including formation of harvesting cooperatives, education about community rights for improved governmental representation, and improving rural families' self reliance (people who have traditionally depended on an economic system that overwhelmingly benefits the middlemen, rather than the small scale producer).

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