The Plantation History and Contemporary Business of Tea
Terroir is an incredibly prevalent notion in the market of tea, particularly in Darjeeling, a region in India which grows some of the worlds most desired tea. Advertised as a product of fair-trade labor and grown in rich geographic and climactic condtions, consumers pay very high prices for tea grown here. However, this promotion of a moral economy shared between land owners, workers, and consumers is becoming a romanticized illusion.
In colonial times, the fair-trade system really was blooming. Land managers cared for their workers with a promise of a steady job, suitable homes and ample food. This care and security provided to the laborers of the land motivated them to care for the plants. Planters and pluckers tended to the tea bushes as if they were their own children. This cycle of reciprocity created a unique, quality taste that consumers couldn’t get enough of.
As India split from Britain and entered post-colonial times, the industry declined and faced many hardships, causing the cycle of good morale to break. The main struggle in the contemporary business of tea is the deteriorating relationship between land managers and plantation workers. They have abandoned their dedication to improving the quality of workers lives to sell the idea of fair-trade. To make a thick profit, they focus most of their time and money trying to achieve and market international fair-trade and organic certifications to drive up the value of the tea, and have failed to actually improve housing situations or wages for the workers. Workers are becoming unhappy with the managers lack of stewardship to them and losing their desire to be stewards of the land. But even though the workers quality of lives are declining, the global demand of the tea is on the rise due to marketing schemes. The consumer is unaware of these conditions and only sees that the product comes from a fair-trade certified plantation. They are simply willing to pay so much for Darjeeling tea because the term “fair-trade” inspires the idea that their purchase can bring positive changes to communities and agricultural systems across the world. What they don’t know is that the workers must abide to a consumer-driven broken system that fails to circulate the money from their products high market price back into their lives. These convictions are what cause Darjeeling tea to have a remarkably fetishized value in the consumer world.
Written by: Mazzy Lattery
Image from: Guariglia, Justin. “Steeped in Darjeeling — National Geographic Traveler.”National Geographic Traveler June 2014.
Texts used for reference: Besky, Sarah. The Darjeeling Distinction: Labor and Justice on Fair-Trade Tea Plantations in India. N.p.: U of California, 2013. Print.
