Why buy ethical tea

Did you know?

• Lots of conventional tea producers use child workers. Other than being exploited, these children are exposed to the chemicals used as fertilizers and pesticides.
• The plantation worker is likely to earn 1% of the value chain or less.
• Fairtrade standards for tea act as a safety net against the unpredictable market, providing a minimum price that aims to cover their costs of sustainable production.
• Fairtrade can do a lot for the communities where tea and coffee are grown: they can even build infrastructure such as roads, schools, water sources and hospitals!
• Not only is organic tea healthier for you, but it is also kinder to the environment. Conventional tea plantations lead to soild degradation and chemicals end up in water systems.

Tea contains natural substances that have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and even anti-carcinogenic properties!

Health in a cup.. or not

Like other intensively farmed crops, tea is routinely treated with a broad range of agricultural chemicals. Because their new growth is continually harvested, tea plants must obtain sufficient nitrogen from the soil. Most commercial growers depend on synthetic fertilisers to replace soil nitrogen. In addition to accumulating within the cells of each plant, agricultural chemicals have the potential to inhibit or weaken natural processes which create highly powerful nutrients!

Organic farmers replace soil nitrogen with natural materials like green manure crops, seaweed, compost, and animal manures.

When grown in appropriate locations, herbs are naturally resilient. Many of them grow in marginal soils and produce volatile compounds which discourage insect pests. This enables them to be grown organically, without chemicals.

What does fairtrade do? 

Some of the most vulnerable people in the world earn their living from tea, and we can make a big difference on their lives. In addition to contribute to development in communities where tea is grown, fairtrade also changes agricultural techniques, which in turn improve the quality and quantity of the final product. It also insures that forced labour and child labour of children under 15 years old does not occur.

Under organic certified farming, pesticides are severely restricted and artificial chemical fertilisers, animal cruelty, genetically modified feed and routine use of drugs and antibiotics are all disallowed. Many products, including tea are dual certified, matching organic with other certification schemes.

References

• http://www.google.dk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=45&ved=0CEgQFjAEOCg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fairtrade.org.uk%2Fincludes%2Fdocuments%2Fcm_docs%2F2010%2Ff%2F1_ft_tea_report_artworkfinal_for_web.pdf&ei=B8zyUNr7I8TNtAbCnIH4Bw&usg=AFQjCNHtVh3vSYLeNJ_-t5g-dg2LiVYs6g&bvm=bv.1357700187,d.Yms

• http://teaguardian.com/tea-health/tea-flavonoids.html#.UPLDkuhaT4ghttp://www.alotoforganics.co.uk/help/facts1.php
• http://www.organicguide.com/organic/food/organic-tea/
• http://www.ifoam.org/partners/projects/cfc.html
• http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-beverages/organic-coffee/organic-coffee-and-tea.html