Anyone for tea – just don’t make it Tetley’s

Tetley's Tea - buy it and you perpetuate the abuse of Bengali Tea Pickers

I’ve started obsessing about ethical consumption recently – And as I’ve just run out of tea and had to buy some more – I did some digging –

The British drink  165 million cups of tea every year, but some of our most popular tea suppliers perpetuate great environmental and social harms in the process of bringing us our national drink.

Tetley’s, the second most popular tea brand in the UK, and owned by parent company Tata, are notoriously bad, scoring only a dismal 4.5/ 20 for it’s ethical trading policies as measured by Ethical Consumer – which looks at the parent company’s environmental, workers rights and political activities.

Buying Tetley’s effectively involves supporting a company which doesn’t support fair pay and conditions for its tea pickers – also see this site for how Tetley’s attacks its tea workers in West Bengal – so you can either boycott them, which wouldn’t actually help the tea pickers,  so far better would be to take some stiffer action – letter writing, or you could, not that I condone such action, go to 18 Grosvner place in London and spray paint on their offices details of what they’re doing.

NB – Tata also own good earth tea – you’d never guess this was on dodgy ethical grounds judging by the packaging – incidentally this is why I reject most forms of marketing as a valid career – marketing involves dressing up a product so it seems more than it actually is – in this case, deliberately misleading the public.

Top of the ethical tea standards table were Equal Exchange Tea – with 17/20 for its ethical credentials – seems to be a reliable fair trade company which means that the tea is produced sustainably and the tea pickers get a decent price.

So if you are also a filthy, dirty and weak caffeine addict and your middle class enough to be able to afford it, go for the fairtrade option – alternatively I’m awaiting delivery of a batch of new T shirts I’ve designed – a range of colours and sizes bearing the logo ‘I don’t give a toss about worker’s right’s in the developing world so make mine a Tetley’s’ – so you could always buy one of those instead…

 

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