When I was 17 I traveled to England. Many wonderful adventures happened on this trip, but one of the most enduring things I brought back was a love of hot tea. I had never been a tea drinker until I stumbled upon The Crooked Tea House in Windsor; literally a crooked house. I still remember that place like it was yesterday. As you walk into the cafe there was a rotating glass display of pies and cakes. My friends and I ventured up a crooked little staircase to find seating. I had never been a fan of tea, mostly because it came in the iced form where I grew up. On a whim, I decided to embrace England and order a pot of early gray and a toasted cheese sandwich. It was, dare I say, the best tea I have ever had. I remember the beautiful way the dark early gray collided with the fresh milk. It was creamy and herbaly all at the same time. For the rest of the trip, I bought boxes and boxes of tea where ever I went, shoved them all in my suitcase, and thus, began my great love affair with this leafy beverage.
What in the world does this have to do with sustainability you might ask? Well a lot actually. The food movement is picking up and people are starting to critically evaluate where that mango in the middle of winter actually came from (probably not your neighbor's greenhouse). However, I don't often hear people talk about where their beverages came from. The exception to this is probably coffee. I do, after all, live in an area known for it's copious amounts of coffee consumption and have met people obsessed with the search for a perfect bean. Fair Trade, organic and shade grown are often words associated with coffee. I often think that as long as my coffee meets these requirements, it's ethical and sustainable to drink it. However, it's very rare for coffee to be grown in the U.S. One place in the U.S. that has the hot climate for growing coffee is Hawaii; not exactly close. This means that my little cup (or 5) of coffee is a world traveler. The same goes for tea. Although some teas are grown in the U.S. (there are two commercial tea gardens in this country), many of them are still imported. Is it environmentally ethical to drink these beverages? What does Fair Trade actually mean? Why in the sam hill is it important for stuff to be shade grown? Instead of rambling on with answers to all these questions, I offer the upmost empirically sound reference of wikipedia (sorry, but it has the most comprehensive defintions).
Fair Trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade
Shade Grown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade-grown_coffee
and if you're interested in really getting into the corporate er, I mean, government, side of things you can read about NAFTA here (sorry dems, but this is one thing Billy didn't do so well on)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement
And after reading that, check out the Beehive Design Collectives massive copy-left art on free trade and mesoamerica and the war on drugs (it's all connected man). I suggest checking out everything the beehive has to offer and catching them on tour if you can. Those are some damn hard workin' and knowledgeable bees and all their information comes from interviews with local people directly impacted by globalization.
http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/ftaa.htm
Peace and Cups of Tea
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