Charities for Tea Plantations Workers?

[joelbct]

I'm not so worried about working conditions in Japan, but I wonder if anyone has heard of any charities for China/India tea plantation workers?

Seems the least we could do, for those noble and likely ill-treated souls who pick our tea... I have heard some bad things about worker conditions/wages in India for one. It would be nice to be able to give something back.

Perhaps Chip and Mary could look into this at the convention? I know so-called "fair trade" coffee and efforts to improve working/living conditions for coffee growers have been popular, so why not the same with tea?

[Salsero]

Lochan Tea has posted some stuff about these issues in India. Can't remember where or what, though.

[Wesli]

Rishi has a lot of fair-trade teas, but boy do you pay for it.

There's a place called tetulia who have a great co-op program going that involves cows. You can read about it all at their blog. Tetulia now has their own tea plantation based on good morals. Buy from their site, get teas, support the poor, feel good.

[Space Samurai]

Fair Trade is pretty big in India, if you look around a bit, its not that hard to find. It is more rare in China (go figure), but still available.

For a good selection of some Fair Trade Tea in India and Africa, I recommend taking a look at http://www.silvertipstea.com.

Yeah, Japan's safe, they're just like us. I'm not saying the tea pickers there are getting rich or above working class or anything, but they aren't being exploited either.

One thing to keep in mind, the higher the quality the tea you drink, the less likely you are going to find Fair Trade. I wrote a blog about this last October, here it is: http://anotherteablog.blogspot.com/2007 ... olong.html

[joelbct]

One thing to keep in mind, the higher the quality the tea you drink, the less likely you are going to find Fair Trade. I wrote a blog about this last October, here it is: http://anotherteablog.blogspot.com/2007 ... olong.html

Alex I think that statement is true with regards to non-Japanese tea at least, possibly with the exception of the Makaibari Estate.

Great responses from Benjamin Harrison and Joshua Kaiser at Rishi. This particular part is what I am after:

"The FTC premiums paid on these teas have gone a long way to helping to develop infrastructure (roads, schools, waterworks, etc.) that help the standard of living as well as help the producers get their teas to market."

In any case, the fact that organic and "fair trade" issues are not often the top priorities with producers of high-end tea is why I'd suggested a general charity for tea workers across the board.

Perhaps we could even bring pressure upon large marketers of bagged and bottled tea to contribute to said tea-worker charity.

[daughteroftheKing]

Thunderbolttea.com has a charity for the children of plantation workers in Darjeeling. The region is dependent on it's tea industry, but the workers live in very poor conditions and their children are generally uneducated. According to the website, thunderbolttea donates a portion of their proceeds to that charity and give visitors to the site a link to find out/give more.

[Mary R]

Perhaps Chip and Mary could look into this at the convention? I know so-called "fair trade" coffee and efforts to improve working/living conditions for coffee growers have been popular, so why not the same with tea?

Ack! I wish I'd seen this before I left--I would have made sure to have taken notes and asked questions about this specifically.

The good news is that I did see several companies that addressed this issue in some way. Let me review the 25 pounds of literature I brought home (Okay, okay...that's a bit of hyperbole. I don't think it's more than 10.) and I'll make a list up.

Oh, and the Lochan's program is called the "Indus Foundation." It's pretty cool.