Why buy Fairtrade tea ~ we would suggest the number one reason is to ensure that the people who grew and picked your tea are treated ethically and paid fairly.
However, there are many other reasons to buy Fairtrade tea.
Buying Fairtrade anything, is a way of making sure that the people who worked on your product, work in a healthy, safe environment, and that their voice is listened to when it comes to their conditions, training and necessary skill level.
Fairtrade Tea is better for Mother Earth.
Part of Fairtrade practice is growing and harvesting in ways that are sustainable and eco-friendly for the local environment. Another part of Fairtrade tea practice is that your tea is grown free of genetically modified ingredients, and it will either be certified organic, or if not certified, certainly grown toxin free.
Fairtrade tea workers are highly skilled and are taught the Fairtrade philosophy and practice of passing on their knowledge and skill to the next generation, thus engaging in Seventh Generation Sustainability(1).
Fairtrade Tea means you will have a better tasting tea. Not only because your conscience will tell you that doing the right thing makes your tea taste better, but also because, the high skillset of your tea artisans means they will be crafting by hand. This means your tea is grown and picked in smaller quantities, and with greater care, thus resulting in fresher, better tasting tea.
Fairtrade supports the entire local community. Fairtrade structure is one of cooperation and the greater communal good, resulting in healthcare, homing and education for villages that otherwise would have been too poor to set up such infrastructure.
Buying Fairtrade is a way of supporting the world’s poor not via charity, but rather by the much more sustainable system of ongoing work, improved skillset and just wages.
And buying Fairtrade means you get to say no to ~ and actively do something to stop ~ child, forced, and slave labour(2).
Buying Fairtrade is an easy and meaningful way each of us can make a difference. By engaging in it, you tell unethical manufacturers, you will not support child or forced labour; that you will only support companies that treat their people with dignity, respect and fairness.
So please, eat, drink, support, buy Fairtrade, and spread the word. Encourage others to do the same. Every single thing each of us does, supports or detracts from a freer, fairer and more peaceful world.
Enjoy your Fairtrade Tea one tranquil cup at a time, happy in the knowledge you are part of the solution to some of the world’s most pressing social issues. Many blessings to you ~ GreenWitch Tea
