I tend to just write about the stuff I like — coffee, chocolate, wine, the like.
[pic from TFUSA] Meaning, I’m not a tea girl. But recently I’ve had a buncha tea-drinking weirdos readers ask about fair trade tea —
So I wanna point you tea peeps to a convo we’ve been having on this post about, among other things, why fair trade tea just hasn’t taken off yet.
I’m not sure if that question will ever be answered definitively, but one of the pieces seems to be the fact that big tea plantations are allowed to get fair trade certified. For most other fair trade products, certification’s limited to small farmer co-ops.
Why’s this important? I thought you might wanna know about an issue Rodney of Equal Exchange brought up:
In particular we’re astounded that large-scale white-owned rooibos plantations, whose market domination is a vestige of the Apartheid era, are currently allowed to sell into the Fair Trade rooibos market, in direct competition with struggling black african small-farmer co-ops. And that is even though the plantations already control 98% of the world’s rooibos market.
I’m actually not against plantations joining the fair trade movement in principle, because that leads to better treatment of workers working on those plantations, and because often, the big corps that don’t do much (or any) fair trade coffee use the current exclusion of plantations from the fair trade model as an excuse for not improving their labor practices.
However, I think that these types of decisions need to take into account current situations and realities.
According to Equal Exchange, FLO, the org that certifies fair trade farms and plantations, “decided that due to the scarcity of small farmers in the major tea producing countries such as India and Sri Lanka, the model would revolve around plantations rather than small farms.” Which meant that “small farmers already weak in the tea economy, were further marginalized.”
Again, I’m not against plantations getting certified. But the move does seem to have been a little premature, especially considering the fact that many fans of fair trade think that certified products have all been produced by small farmer co-ops.
For tea drinkers who wanna make sure their beverage comes from co-ops, consider Equal Exchange’s 3 new teas, coming out this fall. The Organic Green Magic Tea and Organic Rooibos Tea are 100% small farmer co-op, and the Organic Irish Breakfast Tea’s 75%.
And just $4 to $4.25 bucks for 25 bags! Dude! Is all tea this cheap? Almost makes a coffee drinker wanna switch. Not.
Ok tea drinkers — I really was kidding about the weirdos bit, sorta. Please let us know about your fave co-op friendly tea in the comments –
June 27th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Hi,
Plantations does not equal evil. Not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur (i.e., small farmer) to take advantage of better pay and working environment guaranteed by Fairtrade. I am happy to support also non-owner workers through the Fairtrade system.
Whether or not you think plantation tea is a bad idea, you definitely should not use teabags. Buy loose tea.
- Less waste
- Less foreign matter which is soaked in your drink
- Typically, much, much better quality tea
June 28th, 2006 at 8:54 am
Choice Organic Teas also has some fair-trade blends.
I like tea from Sympathy for the Kettle and Serendipitea (mail order only) in NYC.
Lots of FT tea purveyors on Transfair’s site:
http://transfairusa.org/content/certification/licensees2.php#tea
June 28th, 2006 at 8:59 am
Oh yeah, I agree with Anon–loose tea all the way, man. The stuff in tea bags is basically tea “dust” and doesn’t taste remotely as good :)
June 28th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
wow. that was pretty one-sided. rodney north is a good guy and all, but there’s other sources of information on fair trade tea. have you even looked at the certification standards for tea plantations? go to FLO’s site, download them, and read them. then please write another blog entry. you’ve said nothing about the standards for worker rights on fair trade tea plantations, nothing about the joint-bodies, nothing about the positive effects fair trade has had on tea pluckers. i’m sure you understand that the world “according to Equal Exchange” isn’t necessarily the world as it is. they are a co-op, so they see the world through co-op colored glasses. the fact is that not every agricultural product in the developing world is produced by co-ops. the co-op model for coffee may work great for central america, but what about asia and africa? isn’t one of the criticisms against fair trade certification that “one size fits all” doesn’t work? if you could guarantee worker rights, fair wages, social investment, collective bargaining, etc. for tea pluckers on plantations (which are the overwhelmingly vast majority of how tea is produced), is that a bad thing?
June 28th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Anon and Mr T — I’m not sure either of you actually read the whole post. I clearly say I’m not against plantations, TWICE.
Despite Mr. T’s assertion that I say nothing about the standards for worker rights on tea plantations, I actually give that as one of the reasons why I’m not anti-plantation: “I’m actually not against plantations joining the fair trade movement in principle, because that leads to better treatment of workers working on those plantations…”
Meaning, I didn’t imply that plantations workers get no benefits from fair trade — I think they do. I do, however, wonder if the decision to include plantations may have been premature considering the already-marginalized tea co-ops, and that consumers — who often think co-ops when they think fair trade — may feel they didn’t get what they thought they were getting when they bought fair trade tea.
And of course, this is the starting point for something I’ve been thinking about, certainly not the final word. I guess what I’m wondering is the effect tea plantations’ inclusion is having on the fair trade movement as a whole, thinking about it long term, considering the possible marginalization of small scale farmers, continued consumer confidence in the fair trade label, and so forth.
However, what I generally get when I ask this question is just simplistic exhortations about how fair trade’s good for workers on plantations.
I think we’d all agree that, in order to build support for the fair trade movement, standards for fair trade certification need to MEAN something and to resonate with the people who support it. I’m not saying that the inclusion of plantations prevents that, but my point is that I would find it more interesting if anon and Mr. T might consider weighing the pros with the cons in this issue, instead of trying to drown out the cons by screaming the pros.