If you drink tea, particularly tea sourced from India, we invite you to listen to this 6-minute BBC report on the working conditions and treatment of workers on tea plantations in India. (Story begins at minute 6:17)
If you buy tea, please consider looking specifically for tea grown by small-scale farmers, rather than tea coming out of plantations, EVEN IF the tea is fair trade certified.
Only a handful of companies are trying to address the inequities of tea farmers by sourcing their tea from groups trying to build alternatives to the decaying tea plantation model, notorious for its human rights abuses and deplorable living and working conditions.
To buy Equal Exchange small farmer tea, please click here.
To learn more about conditions on tea plantations, Equal Exchange’s alternative model, and the work we are trying to do, please click here.
As always, thanks so much for your concern and your support.
March 9, 2015