BBC Indian Tea Estate Investigation

I have no words. . like you said if all that is true and accurate. .

That is absolutely terrible. The companies that buy that tea should do something about it. I do not buy any of the teas mentioned in the article but that does little good. What we think of as poverty here would be living in royal conditions there.

That is awful! The human race has been disgusting me lately with the horrible treatment of others spurred by greed, fear and the desire to rule and control others. I’m saddened that it even taints tea, something that I really enjoy.

You know how we get back at the greed? We don’t buy the product!

The worst part of this all, outside that it’s true, is that these conditions are not unique to this location that the article is talking :(

I think this is another reason to support direct sourced tea and small family tea farms. The big tea companies don’t care about the welfare of their farmers. Profit margins are all that matter to them.

I wonder if the conditions in China on a farm that produces tea for Dayi are any better? I would hope so but who can know.

I’m really glad someone posted this article. It is 100% true, and even worse in many cases. The wages they were quoting seemed a bit high to me, but I spent my time in Sri Lanka where I knew of people that would earn less than a dollar if they didn’t pick their quota weight of tea leaves.

It is good that Rainforest Alliance recognizes that they need to improve their screening process, same goes for FairTrade. As LuckyMe says, the best thing to do is to try and support direct sourced tea.

As many of y’all know I interned at the Amba Tea Estate in Sri Lanka. I was there while it was being managed and run by Beverly Wainwright (who has since left the estate to work with developing tea estates around the world). Beverly was hired specifically because of her background as an aid worker. She completely changed the estate offering the highest paid wages for tea workers in Sri Lanka (scratch that, probably all of Southeast Asia), a direct profit sharing method with them, as well as English classes and education opportunities. Natenjenna was just starting to working on the estate when I was there, and he has now kept on continuing her work.

I know this is a rare case in the world, but I wanted to share it. There are plenty of great tea estates out there. My advice is to do your own research. Google the estates and support the ones that do good. I’m glad that the rose-tented glasses are off. It is time that we drink good tea, that supports good people.