This World Food Day: Hope is Brewing in your cuppa!

By Neha Saigal

Ever wondered what the person looks like behind your perfect cup of tea?

I don’t think many people do, as chai is all about making one’s own physical and mental state better. But what if I tell you that the person behind your tea is thinking about you, would you be surprised. I bet you would be!

But here is how I know this for a fact as I was fortunate enough to be part of a Greenpeace campaign that was all about making the future of Indian tea better. It started with a report release in Mumbai called Trouble Brewing, in August, which revealed the extent of pesticide residues in tea of our favourite brands globally and nationally. This was of course shocking to us as it was for the thousands of consumers who became aware about the issue. Nobody expects a beverage that you consume like water, daily, to be contaminated with pesticides like DDT, Endosulphan and Monoscrotophos.

But here we had 46 samples across major tea brands testing positive for a toxic cocktail of pesticides!

We took the results of the study along with the voices of thousands of Indians who came along with us on this journey of clean chai, to these tea companies. We were not surprised when most of them did the right thing and committed their support and investment in phasing out pesticides in tea cultivation, starting from next year. This was not only a huge boost to people power but a reassurance that tea companies had a commitment to keep their tea drinkers safe and happy everywhere.

The fact that a tea brand would go the extra mile to satisfy its consumer wouldn’t surprise most of us urban folk. But that’s not the end of the story. The best part is coming up!

If for a few seconds I could take you away from your noisy and busy spaces to the peace and quiet of the tea gardens of Assam, Nilgiris, Darjeeling and Meghalaya, where every tea leaf is brimming with life of its own. Here reside some of the people who care and nurture for your tea leaf before it gets processed, packaged and finally brewed to perfection.

I am referring to the tea growers, the chances are that you will never get to know these people. But I am going to introduce you to a few that Greenpeace had come across in our quest to find ecologically grown, sustainable tea.

First there is Tenzing Bodosa who is from the Kachibari village of Assam, small tea grower who stopped using chemical pesticides to grow his tea, as he witnessed the impacts of these pesticides in the surrounding environment. He then decided that he didn’t want to poison people who finally drink his tea and stopped using chemicals in his tea cultivation. Then there is Ramesh Babu another small tea grower from the jewel like hills of Nilgiris. Everyone including his wife thought he was crazy when he decided to grow tea without chemicals. But determination and a love for his surrounding environment kept him going and today he advocates that ecological tea cultivation is not only environment friendly but also economically viable.

There are many tea growers large and small who are using a variety of practices and alternative pest control methods from neem leaves to cow urine to grow their tea in tune with the ecosystem without any chemicals to ensure they serve us good and clean tea. And if there is one thing we have learnt from these growers is that, like there is no single way to make your favourite cup of tea, there is no one way of growing safe and sustainable tea, there are a variety of them, some of which have been documented by Greenpeace in our report “Hope Brewing:  Kotagiri to Kachibary: Case Studies on Ecological tea cultivation.”

The tea companies and tea growers who are thinking about the people who consume their tea symbolise that hope is truly brewing and there is a way out of this pesticide treadmill for the tea sector in India.

From this World Food Day (Oct 16^th), the theme of which is about farmers this, I do hope your cuppa is not only about you but all those faces behind your tea, that are striving to make the future of Indian tea pesticide free.

Neha Saigal is a Senior Campaigner with Greenpeace India. Tweet your feedback to @NehaSaigal24