Background

Originating in China thousands of years ago, tea has become a staple in people’s diets and a defining feature in cultures and national identities worldwide. Through globalization, British imperialism influenced transnational changes in trade, production of tea, and tea culture. Tea is linked to notorious global conflicts throughout history including the Anglo-Chinese Opium War (1839-1842) and the Boston Tea Party (1773) which sparked the American Revolution.^[1] Today, tea is consumed around the world in numerous forms. Its medicinal qualities have made their way into popular culture and new markets have been established for its terroir and fair trade certifications. However, tea plantations often rely on exploitative labor. The commodity has been linked to forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking. Still tea plantation s have been cited as potential community development strategies, such as in the case of Rooibos in South Africa. Additionally, tea plantations can benefit conservation efforts by acting as buffer zones. Although the tea commodity is loved and celebrated by people worldwide, it is important to remember its connection to to various underlying issues and potential beneficial purposes.

 History

Tea is central to numerous national identities and cultures around the world. Although tea is often associated with the English, its roots date back over thousands of years to China. Archeological evidence shows that tea was originally cultivated in China over 6,000 years ago. Tea leaves were originally eaten as a vegetable and only shifted into a drink only 1,500 years ago.^[2] Ground tea leaf powder, whisked into hot water, known as matcha, became the standard way to consume tea. Matcha became so popular that a distinct Chinese tea culture emerged.

Tea was introduced to countries around the world and soon became an important trade. In the 9th century, the first tea plant was introduced to Japan and a separate Japanese culture developed around matcha. This then led to the creation of a Japanese tea ceremony that involved a unique set of rituals.^[3] In the 14th century, loose leaf tea was popularized in China, which held a monopoly on the tea market. Dutch traders started to bring tea to Europe in large quantities at the beginning of the 17th century.^[4] Tea was only domesticated in Britain in the 18th century and this gave way to its transformation from an exotic luxury to an everyday necessity.^[5] In the late 1830s, tea was recognized as an “element of national self-definition” by the Royal Medico-Botanical Society and soon gained the title of the “national beverage.”^[6] Since the British Empire was dependent on China for tea, a desire for a safe, British-controlled source of tea spurred expansion of the Empire to include territories that were able to produce and manufacture teas such as India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka.) Cultivation and production of tea in India began in the late 1830s and the first shipment of tea from India was auctioned in London in 1839.^[7] The British colonization of nations around the world has had lasting effects on labor conditions in these countries and has been a primary influencer in tea becoming a defining part of many national identities.

 

Spotlight Issue: Labor

Tea cultivation occurs year-round, mostly during rain seasons, and requires strenuous work. In a 2013 report by the US Department of Labor, tea was listed as one of many goods produced by child labor and/or forced labor in at least five different countries.^[8] Tea plantations in Western Uganda have been known to employ children as laborers. Picking tea leaves often only leads to earnings of around 30 cents per day. picking tea leaves and earning only 30 cents per day. A video by the International Labour Organization (ILO) stated that Africa has the highest proportion of working children in the world.^[9] As of 2006, around 40,000 children worked in tea plantations in Tooro, Western Uganda. The ILO used the local radio to raise awareness of child labor and how the benefits of education can help mitigate the problem. Because of this, enrollment in schools doubled in West Uganda between 1995 and 2000. However, it still remains a challenge is to find alternatives to child labor, make education more affordable, and keep students in school. It is difficult to convince parents to send children to school instead of working in the tea plantations because the children earn money in the plantations, which assists the family’s income. Similar to issues of child labor in the chocolate industry, child labor is not an isolated problem but is linked to larger structural issues. In order to eliminate child labor, poverty must be addressed first, as families often depend on the income from their children and have difficulty affording education.

Child labor and tough labor conditions have also been linked to human trafficking in plantation work around the world. Recently, global media has highlighted human trafficking tea plantations in Assam, India. The impact of colonization is still visible as “most are descendants of the original bonded laborers brought in from other parts of the country by British colonial rulers,” living “in the same circumstances as they did more than a century ago, with the same impoverished lifestyles.”^[10] Because the girls live in poverty and have very little education, they are considered easy targets for traffickers. The girls are lured into promises of good jobs but are often sold as domestic labor or into sex work.

Case Study: Migrant Labor in Uganda

Mulley and Unruh (2004) examine the impact of the tea industry in western Uganda on conservation efforts.^[11] This study examines the role of migration and off-farm employment on forest conservation. Off-farm employment is thought to mitigate agricultural expansion by decreasing smallholders’ dependence on agriculture and, in effect, decreasing deforestation. The tea industry in western Uganda depends on migrant labor and, as a result, the majority of the workforce is comprised predominantly of migrant workers. Tea plantations in western Uganda border the northern portion of Kibale National Park, a biodiversity hotspot. The tea plantations in this region also unintentionally serve as a physical buffer zone between humans and Kibale National Park.^[12] It inhibits human encroachment on the park while also inhibiting wildlife encroachment on smallholder crops. Migrant laborers often seek off-farm employment temporarily and then settle locally, contributing to the high population growth rates in the region. Many of the tea migrant laborers are “eager to resettle,” and with little capital, “options of land acquisition for the migrant worker are often limited to those plots closer to the park boundary, which are highly devalued due to crop raiding by wildlife.”^[13] This places pressure on forest resources due to the proximity to the park and the high labor turnover rates, which increases the number of migrants looking to resettle near the park boundary.  Due to migrant laborers settling near Kibale National Park, the unintentional yet highly beneficial buffer zone is weakened, threatening wildlife and local crops.

 

Future: Potential for Community Development

Rooibos tea (red bush tea), is indigenous to the Cedarberg mountain region of South Africa, around 200-300km north of Capetown. Nel et al. (2007) focuses on the community-based development efforts of organically produced, fairtrade-certified rooibos tea in two communities in South Africa, Wupperthal and Heiveld.^[14] Through the support of NGOs, these communities were able to break into international markets harnessing the marketing power of organic and fairtrade certifications. Wupperthal and Heiveld together supply around 100 tonnes of the total 6000 tonnes of rooibos produced annually in South Africa. Nearly thirty percent of South Africa’s rooibos harvest is exported internationally.

During the apartheid regime, agricultural production in South Africa favored white producers and marginalized black African and colored farmers. After deregulation of the industry in 1991, small producers were faced with difficulty in finding a market niche. In Wupperthal, NGOs supported these communities by highlighting the existing local knowledge and skills of rooibos production and helped facilitate access to overseas markets and higher prices. The rooibos initiative helped participating farmers receive a regular income, involved many community members, and the fairtrade premium has generated funds for community projects. In Heiveld, an area with more scattered distribution of farmsteads, NGOs focused on building social capital and established a co-operative that supported a “community initiative based on the sustainable use of indigenous local products.”^[15] By exchanging indigenous and sustainable development knowledge, the community was able to produce and market organic rooibos tea, benefitting small-scale farmers and less privileged members of the community. Although these development strategies have been fairly successful within these communities, they raise the question of how long NGOs should stay in the community after their job is done?

 

Footnotes

^[1] Sydney Cunliffe, “British Imperialism and Tea Culture in Asia and North America, 1650-1950,” (Master’s thesis, University of Victoria, 2015), 1-119.

^[2] Shunan Teng, “The History of Tea,” TED-Ed, Video, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLvVc1sS20.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Julie E. Fromer, “‘Deeply Indebted to the Tea-Plant’: Representations of English National Identity in Victorian Histories of Tea,” Victorian Literature and Culture 36, no. 2 (2008):531-547, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40347203; Teng, “The History of Tea.”

^[5] Thomas Breed, “Tea consumers, Tea Trade, and Colonial Cultivation,” University of Minnesota, n.d. https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/tea; Fromer, “Deeply Indebted to the Tea-Plant.”

^[6] Fromer, “Deeply Indebted to the Tea-Plant.”

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] U.S. Department of Labor, “List Of Goods Produced By Child Labor Or Forced Labor,” 2013, https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/pdf/2013TVPRA_Infographic.pdf.

^[9] International Labour Organization, “Uganda: Child Labour in Tea Plantations,” Video, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53wDnXB1yek.

^[10] Muhammad Lila, “Raid reunites trafficked tea plantation sisters,” CNN, March 14, 2016, https://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/14/asia/freedom-project-price-of-tea-raid/index.html.

^[11] Brad G. Mulley and Jon D. Unruh, “The Role of Off-Farm Employment in Tropical Forest Conservation: Labor, Migration, and Smallholder Attitudes Toward Land in Western Uganda,” Journal of Environmental Management 71, (2004):193-205.

^[12] Ibid.

^[13] Ibid., 11.

^[14] Etienne Nel, Tony Binns, and David Bek, “‘Alternative foods’ and community-based development: Rooibos tea production in South Africa’s West Coast Mountains.,” Applied Geography 27, (2007):112-129.

^[15] Ibid., 121.

References

Breed, Thomas. “Tea consumers, Tea Trade, and Colonial Cultivation.” University of Minnesota, n.d. https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/tea.

Cunliffe, Sydney. “British Imperialism and Tea Culture in Asia and North America, 1650-1950.” Master’s thesis, University of Victoria, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/5831.

Fromer, Julie E. “Deeply Indebted to the Tea-Plant”: Representations of English National Identity in Victorian Histories of Tea.” Victorian Literature and Culture 36, no. 2 (2008):531-547. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40347203.

International Labour Organization. “Uganda: Child Labour in Tea Plantations.” Video. 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53wDnXB1yek.

 Lila, Muhammad. “Raid reunites trafficked tea plantation sisters.” CNN, March 14, 2016. https://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/14/asia/freedom-project-price-of-tea-raid/index.html.

Mulley, Brad G. and Unruh, Jon D. “The Role of Off-Farm Employment in Tropical Forest Conservation: Labor, Migration, and Smallholder Attitudes Toward Land in Western Uganda.” Journal of Environmental Management 71, (2004):193-205.

Nel, Etienne, Tony Binns, and David Bek. “‘Alternative foods’ and community-based development: Rooibos tea production in South Africa’s West Coast Mountains.” Applied Geography 27, (2007):112-129.

Teng, Shunan. “The History of Tea.” TED-Ed. Video. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLvVc1sS20.

U.S. Department of Labor. “List Of Goods Produced By Child Labor Or Forced Labor.” 2013. https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/pdf/2013TVPRA_Infographic.pdf.