The UK is known as a nation of tea drinkers, one Polish person once asked me if we drank tea at 3 oclock everyday as some sort of ritual! Most of us dont realise that this tea is often grown on tea plantations in the developing world where the crops are sprayed with many chemicals and pesticides and the workers that pick the leaves are not only exposed to this danger but are often paid a pittance of a wage as well.
Organic and Fairtrade tea, coffee and cocoa are growing in popularity as people realise the benefits of spending those extra pennies per box and the payback in both health and human terms.
Why buy organic tea, coffee or cocoa?
Consumers usually decide to buy because production is carried out using sustainable farming practices, specifically not allowing deforestation to occur as part of plantation farming techniques.
Some producers go down the Fairtrade route, which gives the consumer further altruistic benefit in terms of assurance that the workers on the tea or coffee plantations have been working under improved terms and conditions, giving them a better quality of life and reducing exploitation. You can now buy organic, Fairtrade tea...