Tea - how green do you want it to be?

I pretty much have already shifted to organic tea, not so much for my own sake as for the sake of the workers in the field. Does this make sense? Toci

my guide: if i like the flavor i drink/buy it

I can't quantify how much I would sacrifice, but I'm interested in the issue(s). In general, I'm relieved to know that the stuff I'm obsessed with is dehydrated near the source and doesn't need to be shipped by air. Do you intend to make your presentation generally available at some point?

/Lew

Good question, and one I do to some extent care about... but my answer would be little to none. It's not because I don't want to be "green" it is because I think too much has been made of many small areas (like this) and the big, most important areas get by scott free.

As for fertilizers and manufacturing, I would like it to be totally safe and non-toxic. That doesn't necessarily mean "organic." The entire process of tea has been around for a long time and is about as green as it gets as-is. Being essentially dehydrated it is very light and easily transported, with little impact.

I'm an avid outdoorsman, I love nature and I make as little impact on nature as possible when hiking/camping. I don't care about trendy labels and movements though that are mostly a combination of "rich" guilt and fad... I care about real impact. Like continuing to sell Yukon XL's or Hummers (well maybe not much longer), like not utilizing natural gas effectively, like letting companies off with a small fine instead of requiring action... to name a few. Tea is about as natural and refined as it gets for the most part, even today.

- Dominic

Thanks group. Some good views and good ideas and some muddled thinking and illogical wish fulfulment. It is the latter ones that are particularly helpful in focusing my thoughts. How about these as further thought provokers?

1. To any who believes tea tends to be intrinsically natural and environmentally friendly; in Sri Lanka "about 7.1kWh of energy is required to produce one kg of black tea - more than the energy requirement of steel production at 6.3 kWh/kg". (quoted from Small and Medium Scale Industries in Asia: Energy and Environment - Tea Sector. Asian Inst of Technol 2002.)
2. To devotees of burning renewable wood fuel instead of coal and oil (this includes myself): Sri Lankan tea factories emit 26,000 tons of SO2 annually due to the burning of rubber wood as fuel - at a rate of

1. Nitrous oxide (NO2) is a 300x more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. It is principally produced by nitrification of fertilizer by soil fungi and bacteria. Fertlizer Nitrogen loss as NO2 is positively correlated with soil moisture (tea likes it wet) and dose rate. Application of N fertilizer on African tea is approximately 100 units. Typical application on Japanese tea is 800 to 1,000 units.

Nigel at Teacraft

Here is my thought provoker. Tata makes so much money on Indian teas they now make the worlds cheapest car. Its more profitable to expand than reinvest.

Jim

PS I now know the reas> Thanks group. Some good views and good ideas and some muddled

Hey if everyone agreed then there would be little to discuss :)

I actually did not know those stats you mentioned, and I fully respect and trust your information. I'm sure modern methods to produce the maximum amount of tea do employ many wasteful and harmful tactics. Those I am fine with stopping or curtailing as I stated initially, I also understand though that it can't all be hand processed as it was (and is in some cases). There is a balance point, and I believe that "greening" it all up is just taking it a step too far. A baby step of maybe slightly reducing waste or changing processes where easily cost effective and with appreciable, fast, ROI would be my suggestion. To expect a massive overhaul would do little but to burden or put out of business the smaller guys who cannot afford to make huge changes so someone a continent or two away can feel a bit better about themselves while they happily drive the SUV to Walmart to buy some peaches in the middle of winter. My statement was more about taking on the bigger issues with deeper pockets first. I'm sure much more steel is produced much more wastefully than tea each year.

I was not angered or trying to be dismissive, I hope it didn't come off that way. And best of luck with the talk!

- Dominic

Can I get from this that Indian and African tea is better environmentally than Japanese and Ceylonese tea? And that this is true for all estates? Toci

Dominic, absolutely no offence taken. At this stage I am but blotting paper, compiling viewpoints and opinions. All are welcome.

Nigel at Teacraft

Between tea origins there are huge differences in their environmental credentials - be they defined by measures of "sustainability" or "carbon footprint" or "corporate responsibility". Similarly there is a very big range, good to bad, between estates. Certainly broad country averages hide the real picture revealed when you get down to the nitty gritty of the supply chain "footprint" company by company.

Nigel at Teacraft

One major question I have that I didn't have time to get into until now is about exactly this and the previous statement about the massive energy consumption, etc. I'd imagine that the huge energy cost has to actually be about as efficient as could be in reality, why would a fairly low-margin product being produced in less economic areas choose to simply waste large amounts of anything (energy, pesticide, resources, etc.)? It would seem logical that they would do just enough to process it and ensure a solid yield and no more. I can't see the point or benefit of excess here.

Sustainability I think is built in. To me that is a non-issue for the most part with tea. Carbon footprints don't mean much to me, that's just a buzzword with little behind it... the rain forest has a huge carbon footprint by definition. The concept is flawed at best IMO. Corporate responsibility is another that in this frame of reference does little for me. The huge conglomerates I can see, but estates or small growers have very little to do with any of this.

I'd love to see tea produced with no toxic chemicals in any part of the chain, actually no additives at all for color or any other reason. I'd like to trust I'm not just steeping out every last drop of some pesticide along with my gong fu. Outside of that I think my biggest concern is for the actual workers. I'm much more interested in them being paid fairly, worked fairly, and treated fairly which is an area I could see as being exploitable in any range from conglomerate to small grower. If those two things were assured, I'd be perfectly happy with the "greenness" of my cup.

- Dominic

Nigel, Dominic, et all,

I have been reading the discussion with interest, but could not manage time earlier to post. The issues raise by you are indeed nobel, and thought provoking. May I add a few facts and put up a few questions, which may be of interest. These are all based on the Indian Tea Industry, which please note:-

Each hectare of Tea Plantation gives an yeild of 2000 Kgs. of Tea (Average).

The quantity of Nitrogenous fertilizer applied to field is directly proportional to the crop harvested per hectare. Only what is removed by harvesting is added back, and no more. Phosphorous is @ half the amount of Nitrogen and Potash is applied only after testing the available potash status in the soil.

In a well maintained plantation, there is vrtually no sunlight penetrating to the ground, so no weeds, and thus, no or minimum herbicides.

Only pesticides recommended by the Tea Research Asociation or UPASI, at recommended dilutions, and harvesting holiday is clearly defined for each pesticide.

Each hectare of Tea has a population of 16000 Plants (Average) : Can its contribution to the environment be calculated?

Each hectare also has nearly 600 Shade Trees, which are essentially Leguminous, and thus fixes nitrogen in the soil: Can its contribution to the environment be calculated?

Where ever wood is used for burning in the driers (very rare), it is grown on the estates, and is continously replanted.

Estates which burn Coal use 1 Kg Coal per Kg of Tea produced. However, many estaes in Assam now have piped natural gas.

The Axial Flow fans of the Withering Troughs, Rolling Tables, Rotorvanes / BLC, CTC machines, Fermenting Machines and the Driers are indeed power guzzelers, but can not be avoided. In my experience, the Sorting machines use the minimum power. Yet, this is not the true reason for high power consumption. Each estate needs to supply power to Water Pumps, Irrigation facilities, Staff and Labour Quarter, School, Bungalows, Hospital, Street Lights, and leave a provision for theft of Power. The Governmental supply is at best a standby in most of the Tea growing areas. Some estates do not have any government supply at all, even today. Hence, heavy Gen Sets are the only answer.

Tea Cheers! Jayesh S Pandya

The Ex-Brit who owns my local tea shoppe says he signed up for your presentation. I know he goes to the Tea Expo every year so I mentioned you. He seemed surprised. I get the feeling he knows you somehow.

Jim

Organic tea is not necessarily sustainably produced. Organic tea could also have a much larger carbon footprint than an unashamedly non- organic sustainable tea. Given the choice between organic and sustainable I take the latter -ism every time - sustainability being defined simply as ?ensuring that our current use of resources does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs?

Nigel at Teacraft