Is your tea poisoned? The long term impact of pesticide accumulation in the human body could lead to many problems from reproductive impacts to endocrine disruption. Your cup of tea just become the trend-setter for a pesticide-free future. I like mine light with a tinge of lemon and mint! How about you? I am referring to my ideal cup of tea, dark red in the morning to wake me up and green in the night to bring my day to a healthy end. There are millions of Indians and Asians out there who like their tea in a particular way and a good number of them who can’t live without it. Chai is associated with so much goodness that the idea of toxic chemicals associated with tea does not go down the system too well. Greenpeace’s report “Trouble Brewing” investigated household tea samples for pesticide residues; this study was done over a year with samples collected from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. The study led us to some disturbing revelations about our tea from crop to cup. The reason why pesticides in tea is concerning, is not only because your cuppa is associated with good health and energy but also because tea gardens are associated with greenery and beauty. The main tea brands that Greenpeace tested were; Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata Global Beverages, Wagh Bakri, Twinings, Golden Tips and Kho Cha, Girnar and Goodricke. The unfortunate reality is that all these brands had comparable number of pesticides and the study was not meant to rank which is better than the other. But one glaring reality that the study did conclude is that tea cultivation in India is stuck on a pesticide treadmill and there are a variety of pesticides that are used and many of them are considered highly toxic by the World Health Organisation. The tea samples also showed that more than half the samples had a cocktail of pesticide residues, referring to each sample containing more than 10 kinds of pesticides and one sample even had 20. The impacts of these pesticides on the tea drinker are much less understood by science and that, in my opinion, makes it all the more worrying. But independent research has pointed out that the long term impact of pesticide accumulation in the human body could lead to many problems from reproductive impacts to endocrine disruption. But what is more obvious is the impact of these toxic pesticides on the environment and the tea workers, which should be as concerning to the consumer as their own health. But Indians love their chai and more than 40,000 people from across the country raised their voice to ask their favourite tea brands to clean chai now. Tea companies have the responsibility to their consumers to provide them safe and sustainable products and if their brand of tea was found soiled with pesticides it’s only natural that they take responsibility and clean up their act. So what does cleaning up one’s act mean when there is a huge market of tea, with many tea growers and many stakeholders part of each company’s supply chain? Greenpeace recommended to tea companies that as first step they invest and support in research and pilots using an ecological approach that will help create a road map towards eliminating pesticides and at the same time rejuvenating the ecosystem. This is a gradual process and cannot take place overnight. This would also mean that tea sector will have to move out of its comfort zone of replacing one chemical with another and strive towards a vision of ecological agriculture. The tea companies that have so far promised to strive towards a vision of ecological agriculture are Unilever, Tata Global Beverages, Wagh Bakri and Girnar. These companies together hold 61% of the market share in India, which is a huge chunk of our tea in the future, going to be produced ecologically. This is a huge boost for the consumer, the reputation and sustainability of Indian tea and the vulnerable environment. The tea industry is a trendsetter as it is signalling that the future of Indian food and agriculture should be pesticide free. As for Indian consumers, they are only becoming more conscious of what they eat and drink and how sustainable it is to farming livelihoods and the environment. In this scenario pesticides used in agriculture are not only redundant but also unwanted.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 06:51:26 +0000
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