or, How I learned to stop worrying and love Amazonian Rainforest ingredients

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Extinction Rebellion has it right: This is an emergency. Life on Earth is in crisis. We are running out of time.

I'm trying to do all I can to be a responsible human so have been looking at my carbon footprint and reexamining ingredients I've always used like the lusciously emollient Mango Butter.

Very quickly, I ran up against a problem I hadn't seen before. Even though I thought I was doing okay because I was buying certified organic, that Mango Butter had to be shipped to me (in the U.S.) from India. That's alot of petroleum-fueled miles.

Sourcing substitutes from closer to home seemed the obvious solution but that brought me to an unrealized internal taboo:

Exotic Vegetable Butters & Oils = Amazon Rainforest = Don't Touch!

My brain equated the palm plantation and cattle ranching deforestation with everything coming from the rainforest.

lol, so I’m a little late to the party…  Amazing butters like Cupuaçu and oils like Buriti are well known though new to me. And they’re considered sustainable as they aren’t coming from commercial-scale plantings. They’re sometimes found on small farms but grow wild in large numbers and are often wild harvested, giving people a viable alternative to logging.

Cupuaçu butter, Buriti oil, and Passion fruit seed oil (made from seed that's otherwise "waste" from juice production) are the first I’m exploring. Mind blown! I have been missing out on some unique and very beneficial ingredients. My heart and skin are both in love.