Current Event #2: Brazilian Tradition Threatened By Pesticides

Ant Article


     This article is about a small town of about 6,000 inhabitants, and their obsession of ants. The içás, or queen ants have made the hill's surrounding the small Brazilian town their home, and the people living there have made it a tradition to eat them. Apparently these ants hold a refreshing taste and they serve as a delicacy for the indigenous people. These ants are different from the kind you might find scouring your picnic table, these ones are big, fat, and wield a large pincher. The ants are collected for a few weeks, but are meant to last the entire year by being stored in freezers. Heavy spring rains flush the ants out of the ground, and the more experienced collectors pinch up as many as they can. The collecting, cooking, and consumption of the queen ant has become a tradition of this South American town with roots going down as far as the town itself. 


     These ants do much to define this town and its inhabitants, but things are changing. In recent years the population of the içás have been noticeably declining. Locals are convinced that the ant populations decline is the direct result of the pesticides used on nearby eucalyptus tree's. Local farmers have started planting tree's for use in paper products, a profitable business. The townspeople are afraid if something is not done promptly, their tradition, and the entire population of queen ants in the area could vanish. This is a small scale example of how modern agriculture methods are not sustainable, thus, harming the environment and its inhabitants.