Like every other human being on this planet I hate Brazil nuts. Whenever I buy a can of mixed nuts, I pick out the Brazil nuts and feed them to the crows. They seem to like them, so I will concede that there are at least some creatures on earth that like them, if not any humans. The question is, if nobody actually likes Brazil nuts, why do people insist on making and selling them?
Now some people may protest that I am exaggerating and there are people out there who like them. My only response to such people would be to ask them to show me a can of Brazil nuts. They can’t do it. You can buy cans of peanuts, almonds, cashews, pretty much any nut, but you will never see a can of Brazil nuts for sale. The only way they can be sold, if not eaten, at all is by piggybacking off of other nuts. They are to a can mixed nuts what pretzels are to a bag of Party Mix.
If you know that you can’t sell a can of Brazil nuts, why would you ever get in the Brazil nut business? If you want to grow nuts and you had some business sense, you would pick any other nut but that. I understand that some people might have inherited a Brazil nut business, but over time one would expect those to gradually be sold off for land development or more lucrative crops. Brazil nut producers should have virtually zero leverage in price negotiations with buyers. How can you drive a hard bargain with buyers when sales of cans of mixed nuts would increase if they stopped including Brazil nuts?
Brazil nuts should be in the same category as crab apples. There is no reason to cut the trees down and if there is one growing in your backyard you might even try eating couple just for the hell of it. Teenagers might sneak onto your property and steal them just to say they did. But there is no reason why these terrible tasting nuts should be sabotaging cans of mixed nuts in your grocery store.