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Josie Wexler Editor

This issue of the magazine is all about hot drinks: It is just that incorruptibility which is currently tea, coffee and herbal tea, and the places that they are causing such a problem in our oceans and soils. consumed. Humans are making a huge amount of plastic, and it isn’t going anywhere. Or rather, it is going Tea and coffee have a lot in common. They are both everywhere. God, it seems, may have had a point. grown by millions of poor farmers who labour at the end of long supply chains. These supply chains To help you to avoid spreading more of it about, we at their most narrow point consist of just a handful report on how companies are doing on getting rid of of companies that are responsible for international plastic cups on page 19, on plastic tea bags on page commodity trading. 32, and pass on tips on how to have a plastic-free Christmas on page 7. In both cases we argue that what is needed is to shorten the chain, or at least to shine a light onto it, so those at both ends of the chain can see what is going Other news on at the other end. We have just released our annual report on the state Both the tea and coffee markets carry some pretty of ethical markets, detailed on page 46. The overall murky colonial history. Europeans took coffee with figures this year were rather lack lustre, being less them as they colonised various parts of the world, and than inflation, but this was caused by the loss of frequently enslaved people in order to grow it. The government support in two key markets: solar panels British established a system of giant tea plantations in and energy efficient cars. If you discount these two India, shifting populations about in order to work on markets, the overall growth in ethical spending was a them, establishing a brutal culture around them, and pretty reasonable 5.45%. that past has never really gone away. We discuss this We also report in this issue on the Lush Prize: the on page 28. annual prize that we run in collaboration with the At the same time, tea and coffee have also been the cosmetics shop Lush, to acknowledge those who source of liberation, and continue to be: providing are helping to bring forward the date when no more an income for many poor farmers around the safety testing on animals is necessary. The winner of world. And coffee shops are a traditional location of this year’s £50,000 Science Prize was a team from the community and solidarity. University of Pennsylvania, for their blinking “eye on a chip”, which is made out of human cells and blinks Plastic in the same way as a human or animal eye would. It may sound a bit like something out of a horror film, This issue is also about plastic, since plastic and hot but don’t worry – it isn’t realistic enough to give you drinks go hand in hand: plastic is found in takeaway nightmares. See more detail on page 40. cups from coffee shops, as well as in tea bags. The Italian chemist and holocaust survivor Primo Happy New Year Levi once remarked that God had refrained from In other news, thanks for your support and interest patenting plastic, because, as he put it: “it is a little too in ethical consumption over the last year. See you in incorruptible...He doesn’t like incorruptible things.” 2019, when we’ll be talking first off (amongst other things) about furniture shops and paint.

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Ethical Consumer ad 1118.indd 1 30/11/2018 12:14 Contents ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

who’s who p6 Tea & Coffee guides this Issue’s editor Josie Wexler coffee Ciara Maginness (littlebluepencil.co.uk) proofing 10 introduction writers/researchers Jane Turner, Tim Hunt, Leonie Nimmo, Rob Harrison, Anna Clayton, Joanna Long, 11 the certifications used Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange, Mackenzie Denyer, Clare Carlile, Francesca de la Torre, Alex Crumbie, Madeleine 12 score table & Best Buys Jones 14 pods and coffee waste regular contributors Simon Birch, Shaun Fensom, Colin Birch 16 sustainable coffee models design and layout Adele Armistead (Moonloft), Jane Turner coffee shops cover image © Denys Kovtun | Dreamstime.com cartoons Marc Roberts, Andy Vine 17 introduction ad sales Simon Birch 18 score table & Best Buys subscriptions Elizabeth Chater, Francesca Thomas news press enquiries Simon Birch, Tim Hunt 18 tax avoidance enquiries Francesca Thomas web editor Georgina Rawes 06 food & home 19 disposable coffee cups thanks also to Eleanor Boyce, Merle Büter supermarkets rated on plastics, plastic-free Christmas, vegan certification schemes All material correct one month before cover date and © Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd. ISSN cheese recipe, palm oil news 24 Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance & UTZ 0955 8608. 08 journal of consumer ethics 25 Fair for Life, organic, direct trade what’s in the latest issue? Printed with vegetable ink by RAP Spiderweb Ltd, c/o the Commercial Centre, Clowes Centre, Hollinwood, 09 clothes tea Oldham OL9 7LY. 0161 947 3700. Bangladesh Accord, fur, 26 introduction Paper: 100% post-consumer waste, chlorine-free and sustainable fashion museum sourced from the only UK paper merchant supplying 27 Kenyan tea producers only recycled papers – Paperback 23 ethical novice 28 Indian tea estates (www.paperbackpaper.co.uk). the trials and tribulations of coffee shops 30 score table & Best Buys Retail distribution is handled by Central Books on 0845 458 9911. Ethical Consumer is a member of INK 38 beyond consumerism 32 plastic in teabags (independent news collective), an association of radical make your own herbal teas and alternative publishers - www.ink.uk.com. herbal tea 39 climate We are a Living Wage employer, a multi-stakeholder extinction rebellion, Cuadrilla 34 introduction co-op, and Fair Tax Mark accredited. 40 Lush Prize 2018 36 score table & Best Buys who won this year’s awards? p10 41 boycotts Amazon, Airbnb, Nestlé film 42 tax justice about the advertisers digital services tax, EU tax havens ECRA checks out advertisers before accepting their ads blacklist ineffective and reserves the right to refuse any advert. Covered in previous Product Guides: Co-operative 43 money phone & broadband (145), Kingfisher Toothpaste (165), carbon divested funds, wind farm Vegetarian Shoes (162). investment Other advertisers: Abundance, Green Building Store, Infinity Wholefoods, Investing Ethically, Juno, Royal 43 save our bank Society for Blind Children, Shared Interest, Tree Aid, latest news about the Co-op Bank Womankind. 46 Ethical Consumer Markets Report Ethical Consumer Research the state of the ethical market regulars Association Ltd 47 thinker 48 Christmas gift subscriptions Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester, M15 5RF new ethical advertising network t: 0161 226 2929 (12 noon-6pm) give a gift that lasts a year e: [email protected] for general enquiries 49 letters [email protected] for subscriptions. feature a regular forum for readers’ views

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Food and home JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Plastic News A regular update on what companies are doing to get rid of single use and non-recyclable plastic, and tips for how to avoid plastic in your life.

Checking out on plastics Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency have just released a major new league table ranking of how supermarkets are addressing plastic pollution. They surveyed the top UK supermarkets and grocery convenience store chains and found that just 10 supermarkets collectively put more than 810,000 tonnes of plastic on the market each year. This is in addition to more than 1.1 billion single-use plastic bags, 958 million bags for life and 1.2 billion plastic produce bags for fruit and veg. There is also a shortage of plans in place to stem the flood. Most commitments made by supermarkets are weak, with room for improvement even among survey leaders – Iceland and Morrisons. The league table found that: • Five supermarkets have no specific targets to reduce plastic packaging – Aldi, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. And of the supermarkets that do have targets, most are moving at such a slow pace that it would take them 20 years • Greenpeace wants supermarkets to eliminate non-recyclable to completely rid their shelves of throwaway plastic. plastic, like black plastic, by 2019. Most have agreed to • Iceland has the most ambitious reduction targets aiming to do so by 2025. Only four have adopted earlier timeframes get rid of all plastic packaging of its own brands by 2023. – M&S and Aldi by 2022; Waitrose and Co-op by 2023. The • Only four supermarkets offer customers some options to Co-op currently has the highest proportion of recyclable use refillable containers. 86% shoppers support the idea plastic packaging, at 79%. of supermarkets moving towards using more refillable and Read the full report at https://checkingoutonplastics.org and sign reusable packaging but only Morrisons is showing much the petition to tell supermarkets to follow Iceland’s lead and promise on it so far. ditch throwaway plastic packaging – https://act.gp/2Fn0NZL

Single-use plastics ban approved by • A requirement that single-use plastic for food and drink containers “where no alternative exists”, like plastic cups, European Parliament burger boxes and sandwich wrappers, are reduced by 25% in each country by 2025. On October 24th 2018, the European Parliament voted • An amendment requiring cigarette makers to reduce the plastic for a complete ban on a range of single-use plastics in cigarette filters by 50% by 2025 and 80% by 2030. Cigarette across the union in a bid to stop pollution of the oceans. filters are a plastic pollutant that is common on beaches. A EU states still have to back the directive, but is expected plan to tackle discarded fishing gear such as plastic lines and to go through in November and be law by the end of the nets. They take about 600 years to biodegrade and account for year. nearly a third of all the marine litter found on EU beaches. The proposed directive contains: The European Commission proposed a ban in May, following a • A ban on plastic cutlery and plates, cotton buds, straws, surge in public support attributed to documentaries such as David drink-stirrers and balloon sticks by 2021, because there are Attenborough’s BBC Blue Planet series. readily available alternatives for them. One MEP said, if no action was taken, “by 2050 there will be • A requirement that 90% of all plastic drinks bottles will need more plastic than fish in the oceans”. to be collected for recycling by 2025. Currently, bottles and The UK will have to incorporate the rules into national law their lids account for about 20% of all the sea plastic. if the ban becomes a fully-fledged directive before the end of a Brexit transition period.

Food and home ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Plastic-free Christmas Vegan recipe for Christmas We asked you, our readers, and our staff, for ideas for a This Christmas, with the rise in veganism, many people will be plastic-free Christmas. Here’s some of the ideas everyone attempting to have their first vegan Christmas. Animal rights came up with: group Viva! have produced a recipe booklet of 25 vegan recipes to help out. Here’s the Boursin Style Cheese recipe. Don’t Presents forget to check our guide to plant milk before you buy your ingredients. • Use brown kraft paper as wrapping paper which is usually recycled. Or saved paper from last year’s presents (start Cranberry ‘Boursin’ Style Cheese saving this year), newspapers, old magazines, old road atlas etc. Or wrap up in another present eg a scarf. SERVES 8 | 15 MINUTES (PLUS 4 HOURS SOAKING AND • Fasten presents with string – sticky tape is usually made of SETTING TIME) plastic now • Set a challenge in the family for plastic-free presents. INGREDIENTS • Seek out Christmas cards not wrapped in plastic or send an • 85g cashew nuts e-card from eg. Friends of the Earth (https://friendsoftheearth. • 125ml uk/take-part/ecards) unsweetened plant milk Decorations • 2 tbsp tahini • Crackers are • 3 tbsp lemon full of plastic juice tat so get some • 10g nutritional cracker snaps yeast and make Decoration: your own from • 1½ tsp onion powder reused paper • ½ tsp garlic powder Freshly ground

ID 47939522 © Brighton | Dreamstime.com black and pink and toilet roll • 1 tsp salt tubes. peppercorns and • 250ml boiling water sage leaves • For Christmas tree decorations use real candles on the tree • 2 tbsp agar powder (optional) instead of fairy lights. • Handful of dried cranberries • Avoid balloons especially plastic foil helium-filled ones. • Use old fashioned paper chains not plasticised foil ones. METHOD • String corks, cranberries or popcorn together instead of tinsel 1. Line a large pudding basin (around 650ml) or similar sized • Give whittling knives for pressies so people can make their container of your choice (to use as a cheese mould) and own decorations next year leave some hanging over the edges. Set aside. • Make willow woven decorations and hang cuttings from 2. Soak the cashews for a minimum of 2 hours. Drain and rinse holly bushes, pine trees, pine cones etc. thoroughly. Christmas food 3. Blend the cashews, plant milk, tahini, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder and salt until • Use wax cloths to use as food wraps which means no smooth. Set aside. clingfilm or plastic boxes for Christmas leftovers. Obviously the beeswax ones are not vegan. 4. In a jug pour the 250ml of boiling water over the agar powder and stir through until the powder has dissolved. • Use home popped popcorn instead of bought crisps that are sold in non-recyclable plastic foil 5. Add this to the cashew mixture in the blender and give a quick whizz until combined. 6. Stir through a handful of dried cranberries and then pour the Stainless steel mixture into your mould. Leave to cool for 20 minutes before transferring to the fridge. baby bottles 7. Leave to set for a minimum of 2 hours. Reusable stainless steel 8. Decorate with peppercorns and sage. bottle maker Klean Kanteen makes steel baby bottles with teats and Reader discount offer sippy cup lids. Our readers can get a copy of their ‘Deliciously Vegan Buy them from Christmas’ recipe book for a 20% discount on the £2 price www.kleankanteen.co.uk tag when you enter the code EC001XSF on the order form at https://vivashop.org.uk/collections/viva-christmas

Food and home JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

Tell Oreo to drop dirty palm Palm oil free Christmas guide Look out for our guide to palm oil free mince pies, Christmas puddings, biscuits, chocolate etc which is now live on our website.

Breakfast cereals guide now online Our newly updated guide to 36 brands of breakfast cereals has just gone up on our website. We look at • the high sugar content of most cereals • which cereal has the best nutritional value • which ones are palm oil free • which companies are using the recommended traffic light © Chris J Ratcliffe / Greenpeace labelling system. Greenpeace volunteers create a burnt smouldering rainforest with a lifelike animatronic orangutan at the headquarters of Oreo cookies Take a look in our food and drink section on our website. near Uxbridge. Palm oil suppliers to Mondelez, known for its products like Cadbury and Green & Black’s chocolate bars, Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, have destroyed 25,000 Journal of Consumer Ethics hectares of orangutan habitat in Indonesia in just two The fourth issue of Ethical Consumer’s academic years (2015 – 2017). journal (vol 2 Iss 2), published in November, is a special Palm oil can be produced without destroying rainforests, and issue on food and ethical consumption. that’s what Mondelez promised their customers they’d do by 2020. But with less than 500 days to go, they are way off track. Food security Greenpeace is asking supporters to sign a petition calling on The first paper:‘Where’s my shop?’ examines food Mondelez to stop buying from Wilmar International, the biggest consumption in a deprived area of Glasgow. The authors found and dirtiest palm oil trader in the world – that the social aspect of local shops was important to the https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/oreo residents. The second paper: ‘Food, Ethics and Community: Using Iceland’s banned palm oil ad Cultural Animation to Develop a Food Vision for North Staffordshire’ discusses a project in which participants of By now everyone will have heard of Iceland’s Christmas another deprived area used poetry and theatre to come up ad which was rejected as being too political. The ad with a collective food vision for their area. was a rebranded Greenpeace short film featuring an orangutan and the destruction of its rainforest habitat at Ethical meat consumption? the hands of palm oil growers. The third paper, titled ‘Ethical Meat Consumption: The body that banned it, Clearcast, received hundreds Transitioning Towards Sustainability?’ looks at the rise of of calls, more than 3,500 emails and 3,000 tweets. It had ‘flexitarians’ who are reducing, but not eliminating, their to remove staff pictures from its website, shut the company consumption of meat. 56% of Facebook page, and close its switchboard due to the level of consumers now say that they do Editorial abuse. not need to have meat to have a

Journal of Consumer Ethics Vol 2 Issue 2 good meal. November 208 The content of the ad itself was not the issue that broke the ISSN 255-205X rules, it was the association with Greenpeace, which is deemed as a body “whose object is wholly or mainly of a political More on coffee shops Food and Ethical Consumption EDITORIAL Marylyn Carrigan nature”. Food and Ethical Consumption The final paper ‘From bean to THEMED ARTICLES p1-7 Deirdre Shaw, Andrew Cumbers and Hugh Kippen Where’s my shop? p8-16 Iceland was the first major UK supermarket to pledge to cup and beyond: exploring Emma Surman, Mihaela Kelemen, Helen Millward and Sue Moffat Food, Ethics and Community: Using Cultural Animation to Develop a Food Vision for North Staffordshire

p17-25 remove palm oil from all its own brand foods by the end of ethical consumption and coffee Morven G. McEachern Ethical Meat Consumption: Transitioning Towards Sustainability? Jennifer Ferreira and Carlos Ferreira p26-33 shops’ looks at coffee shops, and From bean to cup and beyond: exploring ethical consumption 2018. Palm oil is present in 130 products, or 10% of its own- and coffee shops

BOOK REVIEW p34-47 brand food. It will replace the palm oil with rapeseed and other contains more detailed discussion Dan Welch Yana Manyukhina: ‘Ethical Consumption: Practices and Identities, a realist approach’

NEWS IN CONSUMER ETHICS p48-50 vegetable oils. of many of the things discussed in p51-55 “Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing this magazine, including coffee rainforest destruction, we are simply saying ‘no to palm oil’,” certification schemes and cup

recycling. https://journal.ethicalconsumer.org said Richard Walker, Iceland managing director. “We don’t believe there is such a thing as verifiably ‘sustainable’ palm oil Download articles from JCE from available in the mass market.” its website at: https://journal.ethicalconsumer.org

Clothes ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Bangladesh Accord to be expelled More designer brands ditch fur from Bangladesh Tireless campaigning work and consumer demands are spearheading a revolt against fur in the fashion industry. The European Parliament has passed a resolution Coach is the latest designer brand to ditch fur. calling on the Bangladeshi government to act to address ongoing human rights abuses. The resolution Coach’s chief executive Joshua Schulman stated that, “We understood from our employee population and from our calls on the government to address the crackdown on consumers that it was important to them that we take a stand on freedom of expression, extrajudicial killings, enforced this issue. We’re doing it because we believe it’s the right thing disappearances, excessive use of force, and anti-union to do.” discrimination. Coach follows a long list of designer brands that have In particular, the resolution calls on the government to keep decided to turn their backs on fur. The Humane Society the conditions set out by the Accord, which is set to be expelled welcomes this news: “The last 18-months have seen an from Bangladesh on 30 November 2018. The Bangladesh unprecedented number of fashion’s biggest brands going fur- Accord was set up in response to the Rana Plaza disaster in free, and there is no question that they are on the right side 2013, which killed over 1000 garment factory workers. It is an of history. Designers reviewing their policies on sustainability independent agreement set up to ensure safety measures are and ethics are faced with the fact that fur is not only terrible upheld in these factories. for animal welfare but also bad news for the environment, and Since its launch it has inspected more than 200 factories and with growing public awareness and pressure these are no longer help fix over 100,000 safety hazards. issues they can ignore.” The Bangladeshi High Court has ordered the Accord’s Dhaka The following brands have dropped fur in their collections: office to close due to a complaint from a factory owner, who • Net-a-Porter Group was prevented from working with Accord brands after being accused of falsifying test results on concrete strength in his • Gucci building. • Michael Kors The Accord will still operate from Europe and remains legally • Versace binding by the signatories. However, it has warned brands that • Burberry they may have to stop sourcing from some factories with known • Donna Karan safety issues because they can no longer be inspected. • Jimmy Choo The Clean Clothes Campaign is calling on brands and retailers who have signed up to the Accord, to only continue French designer Jean Paul Gaultier has hinted, in a recent using garment factories in Bangladesh on the condition that the interview, that his might be the next brand to follow suit. In a TV Accord stays in place. interview he called the treatment of animals for fur “deplorable” and stated that he intends to “rectify” his use of fur. Watch this space.

World’s first sustainable fashion museum opens in Amsterdam Fashion for Good has opened a brand-new museum in Amsterdam that explores innovations in the fashion industry. This interactive museum takes visitors on a journey to discover the hidden story behind clothing, from the materials used, to the garment workers who stitch them together. Visitors are given a free ‘Good Fashion Action Plan’, a digital guide, which asks you to commit to a number of actions to help you become more sustainable. We asked Anne-Ro Klevant Groen, who works at Fashion for Good, why this new museum is important. She said: “On average, we buy 60% more clothing than we did 15 years ago – but we keep each item only half as long. Plus, it is estimated that nearly 60% of all clothing produced ends up being burned or in landfills within one year of being made. It doesn’t need to be this way. The fashion industry can transform from the linear ‘take-make-waste’ model to a circular Good Fashion approach that is restorative and regenerative by design.” Find out more: https://fashionforgood.com © Presstigieux

Product Coffee GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Brewing an ethical coffee Anna Clayton explores the role coffee can play in supporting sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity across the supply chain. Photo: Teikei Photo: Sorting coffee beans at Teikei Coffee in Mexico. See the case study on page 16.

n the UK we drink around 95 million the coffee drunk worldwide.2 In the UK, drink more instant coffee which does not cups of coffee a day – coffee grown Nestlé holds a 53% share of the instant quite trace back to the producers and is Iand transported from some of the 125 coffee market by value of sales, followed by often mixed and blended and of course million farmers around the world who JDE (23%) and Carte Noire (4%). lower grade. I believe consumers should be depend on it for an income. However, The speciality coffee sector offers a encouraged to opt for single estate/micro these livelihoods higher quality lot coffee and speciality coffee worldwide. currently hang in (and generally We can outdo the bigger franchises if the balance when “Coffee farmers’ livelihoods more expensive) we can support micro lot farmers and at faced by inaction currently hang in the balance alternative to least trace back to the origin, giving them around climate ‘commodity’ coffee, a premium price to continue producing change, volatile when faced by inaction around with companies even better quality coffee with precision, coffee prices, climate change, volatile coffee getting more taking care of the earth if using shade ongoing workers’ prices, ongoing workers’ rights involved in the grown and permaculture principles to rights issues and whole coffee supply accelerate yield and health of the coffee poor pay. issues and poor pay” chain from bean trees”. The coffee to brew. Direct industry follows trade relationships In this guide, we review 35 coffee the familiar food story of monopoly. are developed; single-source coffee brands and their approach to creating Despite 25 million smallholder farms emphasised and micro-roasteries more sustainable supply chains; producing 80% of the world’s coffee,1 established. It begs the question: should drawing out the better products, three companies – ECOM, Neumann and we drink less coffee, treat it as a luxury and brands and companies, and those we Volcafe – control approximately 50% of make sure its sustainable? recommend avoiding. Beans, ground, pods and instant coffee products are the global coffee trade, and ten roasters, Sheena Shah, Executive Director, all labelled on the score table on page including Nestlé and Jacobs Douwe Permaculture Research Institute, Kenya 12. Egberts (JDE), process about 40% of has said: “Most consumers traditionally

10 Coffee Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

Certification + Demand for ‘sustainable’ coffee appears to be increasing, with it becoming common to find a coffee packet displaying at least one certification mark. Fairtrade and Organic certification is common across most brands, followed by Rainforest Alliance and Utz. A discussion of these schemes can be found on page 24. Fairtrade and Organic certification is Ethical Consumer’s recommended certification combo. UK-available coffee brands also take a number of other approaches to improving their environmental and social impacts, including direct trading, value adding at source, and through using agroforestry systems. Direct trading This model sees roasters sourcing coffee directly from producers, cutting out the middle people, and in general, developing longer-term relationships with farmers. Direct trading is practised by several Teikei Photo: companies in this guide, including Coffee plants at Teikei Coffee in Mexico. See the case study on page 16. Cafédirect, Illy Group, Solino, Café Libertad Kollektiv, Cafeology, and Union Hand Roasted. All take slightly different approaches, with some seeking Value adding at source world’s tropical zones until the 1980s/90s certification in addition to direct trade when farmers were encouraged (by relationships, and others, such as Union As the name suggests, this model governments and international aid Hand Roasted, not. encourages the processing of raw materials organisations) to clear cut forest in order Although each should be judged on a in the country of production; adding value to grow coffee in full sun. case-by-case basis, all claim to pay a higher and creating jobs. Solino practices this Although higher coffee yields tend to be amount for green coffee than the market model and is also part of Proudly Made in produced from sun-grown coffee, shade- 6 rate and all appear to work with producers Africa – a not-for-profit organisation that grown coffee trees can live longer, and the to improve sustainable production facilitates and promotes ethical trading agroforestry systems used for shade-grown practices. However, transparency around of African goods by acting as a trade coffee provide better bird habitat, soil each coffee product, the coffee producer, facilitator between “producers of African protection, erosion control and carbon the production method used and methods shelf-ready products and international sequestration.7 The greater biodiversity for agreeing price is key information retailers”. of shade-grown coffee farms can also needed in order to determine whether a Solino claims to be one of the first fully provide farmers with more diverse yields: coffee is ‘ethical’ or not. made-in-Ethiopia coffee products to reach coffee, firewood, building materials, other Cafe Rebelde Zapatista and Cafédirect Europe, with the growing, harvesting, fruit and medicinal plants for example. are recommended Best Buys with great processing, roasting, packaging and See page 16 for a case study on a shade- direct trading models. branding being entirely done in Ethiopia; growing coffee system. Revolver takes a different stance on adding 60% more value for Ethiopians Bird-Friendly Certification is the direct trading, preferring to buy products compared to selling green raw coffee. most stringent way to guarantee shade- from local co-operatives rather than However, it does not discuss it production grown coffee; ensuring that 100% of the directly from farmers. It is critical of methods ... product’s coffee is organic certified and the direct trading model, stating that Shade grown grown under at least 40% shade cover. one individual benefits, as opposed to This certification scheme was developed the benefits being spread across the Several companies in this guide support by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center community (as with a cooperative), and shade-grown coffee production – an in the United States, with the specific aim there is greater risk of corruption. It also agroforestry system that grows coffee of protecting tropical ‘agroforest’ habitats considers working with a co-operative of plants under a mix of larger, hopefully for migratory birds. Bird and Wild’s coffee farmers better for ensuring continuity of native, canopy trees. Shade-grown coffee is Bird Friendly certified and 6% of sales supply. was traditionally practised around the are donated to the RSPB.

11 Product Coffee GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

USING THE TABLES Environment Animals People Politics +ve USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher the score, Positive ratings (+ve): the better the company across all • Company Ethos: the criticism categories. = full mark, H = worst rating, e = half mark. h = middle rating, E empty = best rating (no criticisms). • Product Sustainability: Maximum of five positive marks. ■ beans ■ ground ■ instant ■ pods

Bird & Wild [F,O,S] ■ ■ 18 e 3 Guy Wilmot Consulting Revolver [F,O] ■ ■ ■ 17 e 2 Revolver World Source Climate Change [O,S] ■ ■ 16.5 e 1.5 Source Sustainable Supply Cafe Rebelde Zapatista [F,O] ■ ■ 16.5 h e 2 Cafe Libertad/Essential Trading Cafédirect [F,O] ■ ■ ■ 16 H e 2 Cafédirect Revolver [F] ■ ■ ■ 16 e 1 Revolver World Equal Exchange [F,O] ■ ■ 15.5 H E 2 Equal Exchange Inc Cafeology [F,O,R] ■ 15.5 H 2.5 Cafeology Cafeology [F,O] ■ 15 H 2 Cafeology

Cafédirect [F] ■ ■ ■ ■ 15 H e 1 Cafédirect Suma [F,O] ■ ■ 15 H h e 1.5 Triangle Wholefoods Union Hand Roasted [D,O] ■ ■ 15 H 2 Lunar Ventures Ltd Percol [O,F] ■ ■ 14.5 h H 2 Broderna Lofberg AB Cafeology [F] ■ 14 H 1 Cafeology Union Hand Roasted [O] ■ ■ 14 H 1 Lunar Ventures Ltd Percol [F] ■ ■ 13.5 h H 1 Broderna Lofberg AB Percol [O] ■ ■ ■ 13.5 h H 1 Broderna Lofberg AB

Traidcraft [F,O] ■ ■ 13.5 H h h h H e 2 Traidcraft plc Cafeology [R] ■ ■ 13.5 H 0.5 Cafeology Percol [R] ■ ■ 13 h H 0.5 Broderna Lofberg AB Solino [VA] ■ ■ 13 H H 1 Lenox GmbH Percol ■ 12.5 h H Broderna Lofberg AB Rombouts [F,O] ■ ■ ■ 12.5 H h HH 2 Koffie F. Rombouts NV

Traidcraft [F] ■ ■ ■ 12.5 H h h h H e 1 Traidcraft plc Lavazza [O,R] ■ 12.5 H h H 1 Finlav SpA Red Mountain ■ 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group Clipper [F,O] ■ ■ 12 h H H h h h 2 Koninklijke Wessanen Carte Noire ■ ■ ■ 11.5 H h H Finlav SpA Lavazza ■ ■ ■ 11.5 H h H Finlav SpA Taylors of Harrogate [F] ■ 10.5 h h H H H h 1 Bettys & Taylors Group Taylors of Harrogate [R] ■ ■ 10 h h H H H h 0.5 Bettys & Taylors Group Grumpy Mule [F,O] ■ ■ 10 H h h H H h H h 2 Bewley’s Limited Orang Utan [S] ■ 10 HH HH h 0.5 UCC Holdings Co Ltd Lyons ■ 9.5 HH HH h UCC Holdings Co Ltd Illy ■ ■ ■ 9.5 H h HHH Gruppo Illy Spa Bewley’s [F] ■ 9 H h h H H h H h 1 Bewley’s Limited Grumpy Mule [R] ■ ■ 8.5 H h h H H h H h 0.5 Bewley’s Limited D = direct trade O = organic F = Fairtrade R = Rainforest Alliance or UTZ S = other certifications VA = value added at source VA = Alliance or UTZ S = other certifications R = Rainforest O = organic F Fairtrade D = direct trade Sustainability key: Product

Costa [R] ■ ■ 6.5 H hH HhhHH h hh 0.5 All About Food, Whitbread L’Or espresso [R] ■ 5.5 h h h H h h h H H H HH 0.5 JAB Holdings Caffé Nero ■ ■ 5 H hH HHhHH hh H The Nero Company Douwe Egberts ■ ■ ■ 5 h h h H h h h H H H HH JAB Holdings Kenco ■ ■ ■ 5 h h h H h h h H H H HH JAB Holdings L’Or ■ Senseo ■ Tassimo ■ 5 h h h H h h h H H H HH JAB Holdings Whittard ■ ■ 5 H H H H H h H H h H EPE Special Opportunities Starbucks [F] ■ ■ ■ 3 H Hh HHHHHhhhHHH 1 Starbucks Corporation Nespresso [F] ■ 2 hHhHHHHHHhH hHHH 1 Nestlé SA Twinings ■ 2 HhHHHHHHHHh H H Associated British Foods Starbucks ■ ■ ■ 2 H Hh HHHHHhhhHHH Starbucks Corporation Nescafe ■ Nespresso ■ 1 hHhHHHHHHhH hHHH Nestlé SA 12 Coffee Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

The importance of having adequate Table highlights m supply chain procedures in place is nsu er o .o c r highlighted by a recent report that l g Best Buys are the Coffee in a changing climate a

accused Nestlé, Starbucks, Illy and c double certified+ i

h The global area suitable for coffee Jacobs Douwe Egberts of failing to t brands. production is predicted to decline by ensure that their coffee is sourced e Y BE BU 50% by 2050 as global warming makes from Brazilian farms that are free S T For ground coffee and it increasingly hard to find the specific from forced labour.4 Both child and coffee beans, Best Buys growing conditions loved by coffee. forced labour are still prevalent in some are: Bird & Wild, Revolver, “Rising temperatures, increasing weather coffee plantations.5 Source Climate Change, Cafe volatility, increased prevalence of pests A number of companies also sell Rebelde Zapatista, Cafédirect, Equal and disease associated with climate change own-brand coffee machines without Exchange and Suma. all contribute to lower yields and lower publishing a conflict minerals policy. quality [coffee], with a damaging effect on These include Lavazza, Illy Lucky Coffee 17 farmers’ livelihoods”.3 Machines (owned by UCC Holdings) 18 This long-term threat is one key and Rombouts. As electronic devices, topic of discussion in the CSR reports coffee machines are likely to contain the of companies covered in this guide. It minerals tantalum, tin, tungsten and may have spurred some positive steps, gold (collectively referred to as ‘conflict such as support for shade grown coffee minerals’ or 3TG), connected to human production, however approaches to rights abuses and environmental damage environmental management are generally in the Democratic Republic of Congo still poor – as highlighted by the many (DRC). (For more details see Issue 175). worst ratings in the Environmental 16.5 Reporting column. • Cafeology, Source Climate Change, Bird & Wild, and Revolver buck this trend, with all four of these small companies seen as offering environmental alternatives to the mainstream coffee 16.5 market. • As Nestlé produced a good environmental report, it also received our best rating. Best Buy for instant coffee is Cafédirect. Have workers’ rights improved? Workers’ rights within the coffee industry leave much to be desired, with the supply RECOMMENDED chain management policies of the larger coffee brands being inadequate. Pods are best avoided. However, if you really can’t resist, go for Cafédirect How to stop plant milks curdling in coffee and Revolver’s certified coffee pods. Revolver also sells coffee pods that are We surveyed our readers on a number of coffee issues and got an overwhelming biodegradable and made from GM- response! Below are a few responses on the curdling question. free corn starch. “As curdling is caused by the reaction of acids in coffee with proteins from plant- based milk it is hard to find a solution as such, especially if you want to enjoy natural products with no additives and lightly roasted coffee with fruitier base. BRANDS TO AVOID So far, from my experience, heating up the plant-based milk to a slightly lower temperature (50-55°C) and letting the milk sit for 10-15 seconds before pouring Nestlé is the focus of an ongoing into coffee. The best products I have come across are: Oatly, Alpro range for boycott by Baby Milk Action and has professionals and Rude Health coconut milk.” recently been accused of failing to “Water should be max 96°C so let the kettle cool a bit before puring onto coffee”. ensure that its coffee is sourced from “Heat the milk, use a less acidic coffee (or less strong), drink properly brewed Brazilian farms that are free from black coffee and don’t use instant!” forced labour. “If your coffee is instant, add the plant milk to the coffee granules and stir together Starbucks’ own-brand coffee. Not well before adding the hot water. For proper coffee, add the milk after it has only does Starbucks receive one of the cooled down slightly”. lowest scores in our table, it has been “If I make my own nut milk I add sunflower lecithin, that usually stops it.” criticised for its tax avoidance and its For more reader responses to our survey see the extended coffee guide on Ethical treatment of workers in its UK coffee Consumer’s website. shops.

13 Product Coffee GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Coffee waste

However, the pods still use finite raw Although this solves the disposable materials (such as aluminium) or fossil issue, it still seems an unnecessary fuels to make plastic. use of resources and energy to make A number of certified coffee biodegradable pods in the first place. pods are now available which Refillable pods and cups are available are made from biodegradable for Nespresso, Dolce Gusto and Senseo materials. These include: machines, and they are relatively easy Revolver Fairtrade and to buy online from companies such as Organic pods (made Coffeeduck and Sealpod. These refillable from non- pods use snap-on tops or disposable stick- GMO corn on lids. starch); Refillable pods, therefore, solve the Percol Organic disposable pod issue and allow for a much and Rainforest Alliance wider range of ethical coffees to be used. Sadly, most coffee packaging is not pods (made from sugar beet However, it’s still difficult to see what was recyclable because of the complex nature and sugarcane),9 Fairtrade and Organic so wrong with cafetières, conventional of coffee bag laminate that enables a one Rombouts and Bewley’s Fairtrade espresso machines, stove-top percolators year+ shelf life. Instant glass jars may be pods (both made from undisclosed and drip filters, to name a few. To requote preferred (which are recyclable), or look biodegradable materials). Source Climate John Sylvan, inventor of the best-selling out for paper packaged coffee ... Change is also going to be launching a American Keurig machine, “I feel bad non-GMO, biodegradable, organic coffee sometimes that I ever did it. They’re kind Let’s talk about pods pod later this year. of expensive to use ... plus it’s not like drip The original idea behind pod systems was Check with the companies to see if they coffee is tough to make.” can be home composted. © Pongsak Tawansaeng | Dreamstime.com Tawansaeng © Pongsak that each coffee company would brand a machine that only worked with the company’s own specific pod type, each of which was sold at a premium price. Coffee grounds: from ‘waste’ to resource Thankfully this is no longer the case, with Once brewed, spent coffee grounds are a great organic resource – full of nitrogen, many coffee pods being compatible with magnesium, calcium, potassium and other trace minerals. They also have a near- the Nespresso® system. neutral PH – contrary to common belief. Pod materials Rather than going to landfill, they can be added to your compost heap and treated as a ‘green’ material. (Remember to balance greens (generally fresh, high-nitrogen Each pod or capsule is made from plastic materials such as grass clippings) and browns (high-carbon and generally dry or aluminium, or both, although some materials such as leaves and twigs) when making compost).10 pods are starting to appear that are made Spent coffee grounds can also be mixed with other organic matter such as compost from biodegradable materials. Revolver or leaf mould before using it as a mulch around nitrogen-loving (mature) plants. Or states that its pods are made from non- you could spread it thinly (to avoid clumping) on the soil surface around mature GMO corn starch, suggesting that GMO plants. (Beware of using coffee grounds on their own and in thick layers as caffeine corn starch could be used ... (watch this can inhibit seedling and root growth).11 space). Worms are also said to like coffee. If you have a wormery you could add a little After use, some pods may be recycled spent coffee (up to 25% of a feed) every now and then, ensuring that it is spread or composted, but many presumably end thinly. up in landfill (pod recycling figures are And if you are feeling up for a challenge, you could have a go at growing oyster not available). Not only does this create mushrooms using your spent coffee grounds, after which you can add it to your a problem for future generations, but the compost! See grocycle.com12 for details on how to do this. coffee grounds themselves are wasted, which are a valuable source of organic matter. Is there an ethical pod? We therefore recommend you avoid recyclable pods. Although you may be able Oysters to recycle aluminium pods, this is energy mushrooms, ready intensive due to the mixed materials used. to harvest just 7 Illy runs a capsule recycling programme8 days after starting that suggests the plastic is recycled and to grow out of a bag of coffee the coffee inside used for composting. grounds waste. grocycle.com

14 Coffee Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

(IBFAN) found Nestlé to be Companies behind responsible for the brands more violations of the World Health JAB Holdings is a Luxembourg-based Organisation’s investment company that manages the marketing wealth of Germany’s reclusive Reimann requirements family13 who collectively have a fortune for baby foods of $17.6 billion, as estimated by Forbes. than any other JAB owns most (61%) of Acorn Holdings company. – the company behind Douwe Egberts and Kenco coffee. JAB also owns part of Café Libertad cosmetics company Coty and all of Pret a is a German- Manger. See page 17 for more on coffee based collective, shops. registered as a cooperative, that American food giant, Mondelez, the sells a range of © Mighty Earth company behind Cadbury and Green solidarity food Olam’s palm oil plantation in Gabon. Olam supplies Douwe Egberts, Kenco and Nestle. & Blacks, also owns part of Jacobs products; paying Douwe Egberts (JDE). Mondelez was more for green included in the recent ‘Know the Chain’ coffee than the world market price who commit to operating ecologically report14 which assessed 38 food and and the ‘fair’ regulation required by friendly coffee plantations without beverage companies on key areas the TransFair. Rather than participating clearing rainforests. For each kilogram that need to be improved in order to in what it argues to be “questionable of green coffee produced, the farmer eradicate forced labour from their supply certification schemes”, Café Libertad receives a premium and a donation chains. Mondelez ranked 17 out of 38 states a preference for supporting is made to the Sumatran Orangutan companies, disclosing slightly more resistance movements, such as that in Conservation project and its activities. information on its forced labour policies Chiapas, directly with funding. Although organic farming methods are and practices than its peers. Since 2016, used, and farmers do not expand into The Zapatistas came to world attention in it had improved its score by a meagre rainforest zones, it is not clear whether 1994 with their uprising against hundreds four points by providing more information the scheme’s coffee is shade grown. about how it collaborates with other of years of poverty, discrimination and stakeholders to address forced labour; repression of indigenous communities. Source Climate Change Coffee claims disclosing the names of its palm oil The uprising coincided with the launch to be the first coffee in the UK to suppliers and their supplying mills, and of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade have its own carbon credit number detailing that its supplier audits include Agreement, which Zapatista spokesman – providing 100% traceability to the worker interviews. Marcos proclaimed a “death certificate” communities where the coffee is grown. for indigenous farmers. The Zapatista Each coffee product has a unique JDE, alongside Nestlé, has been linked to emphasis on autonomous organisation, tracking number that reveals the farmers’ deforestation in Gabon through one of its rather than seizing power over others, has on-going conservation efforts at the palm oil suppliers, the notorious Olam.16 inspired movements around the world. ‘cloud forest’ of origin. Its growers are See photo above. Twenty-five years later and they still accredited as organic and also work with either Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance Nestlé was also included in the ‘Know self-govern their communities across five certification schemes. the Chain’ report, coming 5th out of 38 regions of Chiapas. companies. Despite scoring better, it has UCC Holdings Co is a Japanese coffee Although a conservation approach recently been accused of failing to ensure company that also makes coffee to coffee growing is taken, it is that its coffee is sourced from Brazilian machines, hence its rating for conflict controversially rewarded through a farms that are free from forced labour.15 minerals (it loses marks under the carbon-offset scheme run by the Plan Vivo JDE, Starbucks and Illy face similar Habitats & Resources and Human Rights Foundation. Environmental improvements accusations. columns). It owns the long-lived Lyons made by the coffee growers are quantified and results-based payments are made. Nestlé is still the focus of a long-standing brand and the Orang Utan coffee beans Certificates representing CO2 equivalent boycott by Baby Milk Action over brand. sequestered or avoided are then sold by its irresponsible marketing of breast UCC has a range of certified coffees Plan Vivo. Environmental improvements milk substitutes, marking Nespresso but they appear to be for cafés and made by coffee growers may therefore and Nescafe as coffee brands to restaurants rather than retail. However, correspond to worsening conditions avoid. Monitoring conducted by the its Orang Utan coffee beans, which are elsewhere. International Baby Food Action Network available from Waitrose, support farmers

References: 1 www.fairtrade.org.uk/Farmers-and-Workers/Coffee 2 www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/farmers-and-workers/coffee/about-coffee 3 www.unionroasted.com/ email/pdfs/Union_Direct_Trade-Our_Philosophy_of_Coffee_Sourcing.pdf 4 www.oecdwatch.org/cases/Case_512 5 blog.conservation.org/2017/09/coffees-bitter-side- addressing-labor-conditions/ 6 www.proudlymadeinafrica.org 7global.si.edu/success-stories/smithsonian-migratory-bird-center%E2%80%99s-bird-friendly%C2%AE- coffee-program-protects-migratory 8 www.illy.com/en-us/shop/recycle-program/recycle-footer_us.html 9 www.thegrocer.co.uk/home/topics/environment/percol-coffee- launches-trio-of-compostable-nespresso-capsules/543185.article 10 driftaway.coffee/composting/ 11 www.growveg.co.uk/guides/a-common-sense-guide-to-using-coffee- grounds-in-the-garden/ 12 grocycle.com/growing-mushrooms-in-coffee-grounds/ 13 www.ft.com/content/242db7ea-d1a8-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377 14 knowthechain. org/ 15www.oecdwatch.org/cases/Case_512 16 www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Palm-Oil-Black-Box-PrintApproval4.pdf

15 Product Coffee GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Case studies The following coffee models (not yet found in the UK) and the regenerative coffee Bwindi Forest Farm, Uganda feature highlight a range of approaches to developing coffee supply chains that support sustainable livelihoods. A lot can be learnt from these, in addition to the Bwindi Forest Farm started as a Best Buy companies for coffee, when working towards more regenerative coffee demonstration site; showing local farmers a supply chains. way of minimising conflict with wild animals emerging from the nearby park (Bwindi Forest National Park) to raid fields. Teikei Coffee, Mexico Now, it is a whole system – native tree Teikei Coffee (not available in the UK) takes a ‘community-supported agriculture’ species are mixed in with the coffee to approach to coffee. Its community of consumers pays for its coffee one year in advance, provide habitat for insects, fungi, lichens providing the entire production chain with security and sharing the risk. If the harvest – increasing the biodiversity of agricultural is bad, each community member receives a little bit less coffee. land. This makes the plantation almost an Its prices are set through dialogue, not through market prices, with the aim of setting extension of the natural forest. the true cost of coffee – providing fair prices for every part of the Teikei value chain. Bwindi never uses chemicals, industrially Teikei’s coffee is grown in Veracruz, Mexico. It works with three different smallholder produced fertilisers, or machinery. It keeps farms, which are trained in biodynamic and agroforestry techniques by partners and sheep and pigs to provide manure. The sheep friends – El Equimite – in Mexico. Its partners from the Timbercoast then sail the coffee also help keep grass and herbs low, and the to Germany with the power of the wind. pigs help with weeding as they plough the Teikei thinks solidarity until the very end, commenting: “one cannot act in soil with their noses looking for tubers and solidarity when disturbing and destroying natural resources”. It calls the supply chain worms. an “organism” because it sees it as being alive. Every part must be connected to all the Training in permaculture and organic others in order to work properly and each part must take care of the rest. farming methods is offered to local farmers, teikeicoffee.org to support them in growing their other crops more efficiently and sustainably. They then share their knowledge with neighbours and friends. 18 local people are employed on the farm, 10 of which are women, and all receive a living wage. As the coffee is exported, they get double for the coffee compared to selling locally. Post handling hulling, sorting and packing is done first at a local mill, then taken to a bigger export plant in Tororo where they ship with another Danish coffee business. bwindiforestfarm.com

For more innovative coffee case studies, see the extended coffee guide on Ethical Consumer’s website.

Supporting regenerative agro-ecological coffee By Anna Canning, Communications Manager for Fair World Project, a US-based non-profit.

The speciality coffee industry has come agroforestry, and coffee farmers are program, training small-scale farmers around to recognise the virtues of pioneering many of the techniques, in regenerative, organic methods that shade-grown coffee. But what kind of they need support to share their its members have tested. It’s the kind of shade matters too. Diverse agro-forestry knowledge. For too long, farming peer-to-peer education that’s low-cost systems have been shown to enrich the education and extension services have and proven to make an impact. 1 soil and support better crops. Planting been funded by big agribusiness. For more information see a diversity of trees is good for farmers Small-scale farmer-led learning and https://growahead.org too: fruit trees provide food, others innovation projects can be supported provide timber; together they can help through the non-profit crowdfunding This is an extract from Regenerative a farm family diversify their income and platform Grow Ahead. make them less dependent on coffee Organic Coffee: Good for People and In Honduras, for example, an alone. the Planet, By Anna Canning – for the association of coffee farmers: COMSA, full version see the coffee guide on our While coffee is well-suited to has built its own organic diploma website. regenerative organic practices like

16 Coffee shops Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE Coffee shops Francesca de la Torre explores what coffee shops are doing about disposable cups and tax avoidance.

hen it Mintel recently comes to surveyed consumers Wethics, the on their coffee cup your coffee comes purchasing, asking in has become as big where they had bought an issue as the coffee a coffee in the last itself. three months. Of the This guide will take people surveyed, 48% had a look at the problem of bought a coffee in Costa, single-use coffee cups and 29% in Starbucks, 27% at an analyse some of the solutions. independent coffee shop and We also give you the low-down on 24% at a fast food outlet. who offers what in terms of Fairtrade, Two companies from our list of

© Philipp Nagel | Dreamstime.com organic, dairy free, reusable cup discounts the five most unethical companies will be and more. making moves into this industry in January: Coca- We also discuss how a number of coffee shop chains are Cola with its takeover of Costa Coffee, and Nestlé with its new paying little to no corporation tax in the UK. licensing deal to sell Starbucks-branded coffee.

Franchises: The illusion of choice by Leonie Nimmo

You may think that the sign above a Sometimes the franchisee companies are company that owns the brand name (for coffee shop tells you what company small independent businesses. But not example, Costa).8 you’re about to spend money with, but always. Motorway service areas are dominated the reality is often different. Many of the Service stations host an array of different by three companies: Moto (45 major coffee companies featured in this shop fronts but all of the outlets in one locations), Welcome Break (27 guide operate franchise models, handing service station are usually owned by locations) and Roadchef (21 locations). over their branding to other companies the same company, operating multiple When Extra (10 locations) opened their (effectively wholesale customers) in franchises.7 The choice about which first services in 2001, they pledged not exchange for fees. company you buy from therefore to operate franchises, but now other Brand owners often retain a great deal of happens at the slip road junction. But companies lease units from them which control over franchisees whilst shirking your ethical choice is not completely are run as franchises.9 We can also see any requirements to maintain ethical (or limited as the supply chains of the a similar pattern in train stations and indeed legal) standards on the ground. different outlets will be different. airports where SSP Group, who own Crucially, workers are employed by Franchise arrangements do vary but Ritazza, also own many of the other franchisees, which determine pay and the coffee sold will be likely to have outlets found in the same locations, for conditions. come through the supply chains of the example Upper Crust.10

17 Product Coffee shops GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

Environment Animals People Politics +ve USING THE TABLES USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher Positive ratings (+ve): the score, the better the • Company Ethos: company across the criticism = full mark, categories. e = half mark. H = worst rating, E h = middle rating, • Product Sustainability: empty = best rating Maximum of five positive (no criticisms). marks.

BRAND (out of 20) Ethiscore Reporting Environmental Climate Change Toxics & Pollution Habitats & Resources Oil Palm Testing Animal Farming Factory Animal Rights Human Rights Rights Workers’ Supply Chain Management Irresponsible Marketing Arms & Military Supply Technologies Controversial Call Boycott Activity Political Anti-Social Finance Ethos Company Product Sustainability COMPANY GROUP Boston Tea Party 9.5 H H H h h h Boston Tea Party Group AMT Coffee 7.5 H h H H H h H h AMT Coffee Ltd. Coffee #1 7.5 H h H H H h H h S.A.Brain & Co Ltd. Greggs 7.5 H h H H H h H h Greggs Plc Soho Coffee Company 7.5 H h H H H h H h Business Trading Company Caffe Ritazza 6.5 H h H H H h h h h H SSP Group Holdings Ltd Muffin Break 7 H h H H H H H h Foodco Group Pty Ltd. Coffee Republic 6.5 H h H H H h H h H Coffee Republic Holding Ltd. Costa Coffee 6 h hH HHHHh h hh Whitbread Plc. Esquires Coffee House 6 H h H H H h h H h H Cooks Global Foods Puccino’s 5.5 H h H H H H h H h H Massimio Zanetti Industries Caffe Nero, Harris + Hoole 5 H hH HHhHH hh H The Nero Company Pret a Manger 3 H hhHhHHhHHh h HH JAB Holding Co. SARL Starbucks 2 H Hh HHHHHhhhHHH Starbucks Corporation McDonald’s (McCafe) 1.5 HhHHh HHHHHH h HH McDonald’s Corporation

See all the research behind these ratings on www.ethicalconsumer.org. For definitions of all the categories go to www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings

Table highlights the stock exchange in 2007, borrowing would have resulted in it paying around substantially to do so, and loading the £17 million in corporation tax. Instead, company with debts – currently around it offset losses elsewhere to result in a Tax avoidance £300 million. The interest payments on payment of just £5 million. Pret was In 2018, AMT Coffee became the first high these loans are higher than the profits of bought earlier this year by Luxembourg- street coffee chain to be awarded the Fair the company, meaning that no part of it based JAB, which holds Ethical Tax Mark – a real badge of distinction in has had to pay corporation tax since. Consumer’s worst rating for likely tax an industry which has long been seen as How does this compare with some avoidance. a prime example of tax avoidance. While of the other players? Starbucks paid It is difficult to know what will happen there have been claims from some of the $5.9 million in tax in the year ending to Costa Coffee following its recent high street shops that they are improving October 2017, which does contrast with takeover by Coca Cola –although its their act, is that really the case? its previous contributions – in 14 years record on tax prior to the takeover was Caffe Nero is one of the prime to 2015, it paid just over $8 billion for all good. Last year it paid £24.7 million in examples of tax avoidance – it has not those years combined – despite taking over taxes on profits of £103 million – over the paid corporation tax in the UK since 2007. £3 billion in sales. On the face of it, that’s a headline rate of corporation tax. However, Owner Gerry Ford took the company off definite improvement. in the same period, Coca Cola in the US However, the sheer complexity of was paying 15% below the corporate rate Starbucks’ filings means that it is nearly of 35% (admittedly a tax rate above that impossible to tell whether its approach to of the UK’s). Time will tell whether the tax has actually improved. With staggered takeover will move Costa towards the tax filings at Companies House, and an avoidance practices seen elsewhere in the absence of country-by-country reporting, industry. showing exactly where profits have been As is always the case, the likes of made, it is very difficult to say. Starbucks and Caffe Nero will point out Pret a Manger is another company to that they pay all the tax that they are have offset its UK profits against losses legally required to in the UK. However, the from other parts of its business. In 2016, difference is between aiming to pay the the pre-tax profit for the company in right amount of tax in the right place at the UK was £86 million. In theory, that the right time – such as AMT Coffee – and

18 Coffee shops Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE having a clear strategy of minimising down companies that were not publicly m corporation tax. nsu er committing to paying the Real Living o .o c r Wage. Every company lost half a l g Boston Tea Party’s a

How the companies rated mark for this. c coffee is not fair trade i

t but it comes from Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Harris + Hoole, e Controversial Technologies Y a small roaster with Caffè Ritazza, Coffee Republic, Esquires BES T BU Coffee House, Pret a Manger, McDonald’s Every company also lost half a mark close relationships with and Puccino’s all received our worst rating under Controversial Technologies for farmers. for likely use of tax avoidance strategies. a lack of a clear companywide policy of Its meat is free-range, milk Costa received our middle rating although, sourcing entirely GMO free (including organic and fish certified. from January, under Coca-Cola it will be animal feed). It has coffee shops in the South West rated worst. The rest received our best and the Midlands. Habitats and Resources rating. 9.5 Every company except Boston Tea Party Workers’ Rights lost half a mark here for selling fish that was not certified sustainable. As hospitality and catering are industries with traditionally low wages, we marked

As usual, we would also always recommend supporting a local separate the two materials at the recycling Disposable coffee cups independent coffee shop. stage. What’s the problem? What are the solutions? Along with plastic straws, water bottles With plastic pollution being such a hot RECOMMENDED and carrier bags, the take-away coffee cup topic right now, most of the coffee shops has become a poster child for our plastic are discussing the issue. There are three Esquires and Soho Coffee may problem. It is not main solutions have performed worse on our rating surprising considering proposed. that, in the UK systems this time round but they both still have a strong ethical focus, alone, we throw away 1. Improve recycling especially when it comes to your between 2.5 and 3.75 infrastructure coffee. billion coffee cups One solution is to AMT Coffee was the first coffee each year, and that keep the cups as they shop to receive the Fair Tax Mark. Its fewer than 1 in 400 are but ensure that coffee is all Fairtrade coffee and its cups are actually more of them are 1,2 milk all organic. recycled. recycled. Currently, If our table was focused on just the Each coffee cup the coffee cup does coffee, these three companies would can take up to 30 not have much value have performed better because their years to degrade – and as an item to recycle coffees would have positive product by degrade we really as there is very little sustainability marks not applicable mean break down return on the effort to the coffee shops as a whole. These into parts too small to and cost of recycling companies were not eligible for a Best be easily detectable, them. This is because Buy due to receiving our worst rating rather than too small materials created from 2 for Supply Chain Management. to do any damage. recycling simpler The plastic parts items will be cheaper. of the cup can also This explains why, leach toxins into the “No excuse for single use” despite so many cups – that’s Ecoffee Cup’s motto. Their place the infrastructure and processes to environment as they cups are made from bamboo. being used, there are collect, sort and transport coffee cups to break down. We have only three centres in recycling plants”.3 already got to the stage where micro- the UK that actually recycle them. Unfortunately, this does not appear to plastics are being found in our drinking Costa is attempting to double the value have been very successful as it has only water. of cups as recycled items by paying waste managed to recycle 14 million, compared collectors £70 per tonne as part of its to the 500million that they sell each year! Why don’t more get recycled? scheme to recycle as many cups as it sells. It has been argued that the scheme was The term ‘paper cup’ is rather a misleading “We believe that by creating a market for started as an attempt to persuade ministers one. To stop your drink soaking through cups as a valuable recyclable material, we that there was no need to introduce the cup they are lined with polyethylene can transform the UK’s ineffective and the ‘Latte Levy’.4 Caffe Nero, Coffee – a non-biodegradable plastic. The inconsistent ‘binfrastructure’ and have Republic and Greggs are also all making plastic layer is fused to the paper at high made it commercially and financially commitments to increase the proportion temperature which makes it difficult to attractive for waste collectors to put in of cups that are recycled.

19 Product Coffee shops GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

Disposable cups – who does what? We found out what each of our brands is doing on the ground to help curb the number of coffee cups going to landfill. Ranked alphabetically.

Brand Disposable cups Discount for own reusable Sells reusable China cup if ‘drink-in’? AMT Coffee ‘Compostable’ No No Unknown (mostly kiosks) Boston Tea Party None! N/A Yes + deposit scheme Yes Paper (sustainable) and Caffe Nero Double loyalty stamps Only online (£10) Yes Plastic Caffe Ritazza Paper/Plastic No No Yes Coffee#1 ‘Biodegradable’ 25p Yes Yes Coffee Republic Paper/Plastic 15p Yes Yes Costa Paper/Plastic 25p Yes (£3) Yes Esquires Coffee House ‘Compostable’ 50p Yes Yes Greggs Paper/Plastic 20p Yes (£2 = free drink) Yes Harris + Hoole ‘Compostable’ 20p No Yes No – may not accept McDonald’s Paper/Plastic No No reusable cups! Muffin Break Paper/Plastic From January 2019 No Yes Pret a Manger Paper/Plastic 50p Yes Yes 25p (possibly has to be Unknown Puccino’s Paper/Plastic Yes Puccino’s brand) (mostly kiosks) Soho Coffee Paper/Plastic 25p No Yes Starbucks Paper/Plastic 25p Yes Yes

2. Redesign the take-away cup for Starbucks and Costa to replace their grade silicon which can also be recycled. Many within the industry are attempting plastic with corn starch: “Those who There is even one made out of recycled to address this issue through a redesign supported this call failed to ask themselves coffee cups, which has the added bonus of of the take-away cup into ‘recyclable’, where the corn starch would come from, increasing the value of recycled coffee cups ‘biodegradable’ or ‘compostable’ versions. how much land would be needed to grow which, aptly, links back, in a closed loop Esquires Coffee House, Harris + Hoole it, or how much food production it would kind of way, to the first solution. and Coffee#1 have all switched to displace. They overlooked the damage The main problem with this solution compostable or biodegradable cups. this cultivation would inflict: growing is that it relies on all consumers bringing However, there are some significant corn (maize) is notorious for causing soil their clean reusable cup with them problems with this approach. erosion, and often requires heavy doses of everywhere. Firstly, the lack of consistency in pesticides and fertilisers.”5 The charge on plastics bags had a huge what coffee cups are made of makes The better solution will be one impact on making people bring their own it difficult for consumers or recycling that addresses the whole culture of bags but, unfortunately, MPs decided centres to differentiate between them. disposability instead of just exchanging against the introduction of a similar 25p If a plastic-lined coffee cup ends up in one problem for another. charge on single-use cups – although the paper recycling the whole load can Starbucks has been trialling a 5p charge in be contaminated – this means incorrect 3. Reusable coffee cups some stores. attempts to recycle coffee cups can actually It’s not hard to guess where we are going Boston Tea Party, our Best Buy in lead to more recyclable material ending up with this – switching to a reusable cup this guide, has made a bold move and in the landfill. reduces impacts at both ends as it not only eradicated take-away cups altogether. Secondly, ones that are labelled means fewer cups being thrown away, it Customers can either bring their own ‘compostable’ cannot just be thrown onto also means fewer cups have to be created reusable cup, buy one at the counter or your garden compost and need to be sent in the first place. borrow one using the deposit scheme. to a special plant to be composted. Many Hot drinks are also a particularly easy France is the first country to completely councils are not yet accepting them on place to remove single-use packaging ban single-use cups, as well as other the kerbside meaning that they can be because there are no trade-offs about disposable items. This will be taking just as difficult to recycle as the paper- preventing them going off as there is with effect in 2020.6 It would be great to see polyethylene cups. some fresh food items. more businesses follow in the footsteps of Thirdly, the plant starch used to replace There is now a huge range of reusable Boston Tea Party, and our government to the plastic also has the potential to do cups on the market made from all sorts of follow in the footsteps of France. harm to the environment. As George materials including glass, bamboo and rice Monbiot pointed out in reaction to a call husks. The lids tend to be made of food-

20 Coffee shops Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

Certifications and vegan options – who does what? We take a closer look at how each of our brands is performing when it comes to providing an ethical product. Ranked alphabetically.

Other certified hot Organic Free non-dairy Non-dairy options at Brand Coffee Tea drink products Milk? options extra charge Organic herbal Fairtrade Hot AMT Fairtrade All Organic Soya All free tea Chocolate Sourced from Extract Fairtrade, Organic Hot Chocolate is Boston Tea Coffee – Direct Trade and Rainforest Fairtrade, Organic All Organic Soya, Oat All free Party model Alliance and vegan. ‘Most coffee Rainforest Caffe Nero None found None found No Soya Coconut Alliance’

Caffe Ritazza None found None found None found No Unknown Unknown

Sourced from Clifton Coffee #1 Coffee Roasters None found None found No Soya Coconut 50p – Direct Trade model Soya, coconut Soya, coconut Coffee All Rainforest Alliance None found None found No (varies according to (varies according to Republic and some Fairtrade franchisee) franchisee)

Costa All Rainforest Alliance None found None found No Soya Coconut

Esquires Fairtrade Hot Soya, Oat, Coconut Organic, Fairtrade Fairtrade No All free Coffee House Chocolate, sugar and Almond Soya only available Greggs Fairtrade Fairtrade None found No for Americano/Tea No extra (i.e. no Soya Lattes) Direct Trade Harris + Sometimes Rainforest Rainforest None found No Soya Oat 20p Hoole Alliance, sometimes Alliance Fairtrade. Rainforest All Organic McDonald’s Rainforest Alliance None found No non-dairy! N/A Alliance (for drinks)

Muffin Break None found None found None Found No Soya All free

Pret a Manger Organic Organic None found All Organic Soya Rice, coconut 40p

Puccino’s None found None found None found No Unknown Unknown

Soho Coffee Organic, Fairtrade, Fairtrade Hot Oat, Almond, Fairtrade All Organic Soya Company Rainforest Alliance Chocolate Coconut 40p Soya, Coconut or Only ‘Espresso Blend’ Soya, Coconut or Almond – some Starbucks None found None found No is Fairtrade Almond outlets in stations may charge 40p © Danielcgold | Dreamstime.com

21 Product Coffee shops GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

Coffee Republic Holdings is incorporated However, as this article has shown, in Curacao despite not having operations McDonald’s is nowadays sometimes The companies there. We felt this was highly likely to be hitting the headlines in a more favourable behind the brands for tax avoidance purposes. light, with commitments to 100% sustainable packaging and explorations SSP Group Holdings Ltd, owner of Boston Tea Party Group only sells into regenerative agriculture. organic milk, free-range meat and Caffe Ritazza and also Upper Crust, certified sustainable fish making it the specialises in providing food outlets in Nevertheless, it is still too soon to tell only company in this product guide not airports and stations. The company has a whether this represents a real shift to lose marks under Factory Farming and turnover of £2.3 billion and was marked in behaviour or just a greenwashing Habitats and Resources. Despite being down for excessive director pay, and its campaign. The company still sits firmly named after the same event as the Tea subsidiary, Ritazza, was marked down at the bottom of the table with a highly Party – an anti-taxation campaign group for not committing to paying its staff the unimpressive score of 1.5, meaning from the US – there is no evidence that Real Living Wage. SSP Group also lost that it lost marks in almost every Ethical Boston Tea Party has being trying to avoid marks under Human Rights because it Consumer category. its taxes! It has also completely removed has operations in a number of countries disposable cups from its operations. It is considered to be oppressive regimes. a small, family-run, independent business S.A. Brain, owner of Coffee#1, is a and has coffee shops in the South West brewery and pub and hotel company. The and the Midlands. company lost marks for its lack of strong Whitbread currently owns Costa Coffee policies in relation to the environment, its but has sold the company to Coca- supply chain, workers’ rights and animal Cola in a £3.9 billion deal that will go welfare but received no further criticisms. through in January 2019. Coca-Cola Foodco Group Pty Ltd. lost extra marks was named as one of our top-five most under Workers’ Rights because its unethical companies. There is currently subsidiary brand, Muffin Break, was a companywide boycott call of Coca- accused of asking its franchisees to Cola due to accusations of violent union purposefully underpay their workers, busting tactics in South America as well particularly foreign workers, to ensure the as its draining of much needed water business turned a profit.14 supplies near its factories.11,12 The move will see Costa Coffee slide down our Business Trading Company’s UK rankings from a score of six to a score of subsidiary BTC recently invested in Soho two. Coffee Company and now owns majority shares. It is incorporated in Qatar where

Starbucks Corporation sits nearly at the its main focus is investing in and creating | Dreamstime.com ID 49696033 © Serge Bogomyako bottom of our table and loses marks in all luxury shopping malls in the GCC region. but three of our categories. It has also been licenced to operate Despite being praised by many for its Matalan in the region. Matalan has been recent overhaul of its coffee supply criticised by Ethical Consumer across chain, it still gets a worst in our ratings, a number of categories and has been criticised for its meagre and reluctant because, like many of the brands in this References: 1 publications.parliament.uk/pa/ guide, it has a tendency to publicise compensation to victims of the Rana cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/657/65705. the good things it is doing with coffee Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. htm#_idTextAnchor008 [Acessed on 9/11/2018] while neglecting other, still significant, 2 pebblemag.com/magazine/eating-drinking/ The Nero Company owns Caffe Nero disposable-coffee-cup-waste-latte-levy-what-to-do aspects of the business like the food. It which also acquired Harris + Hoole [Acessed on 15/11/2018] 3 www.costa.co.uk/ only started selling Fairtrade coffee as from Tesco. It repeatedly manages to pay responsibility/our-cups/ [Acessed on 12/11/2018] a response to public pressure and even little to no tax in the UK despite making 4 www.thetimes.co.uk/article/costa-s-coffee-cup- now it is only a few of its coffees that recycling-scheme-is-a-flop-2jll05bn7 [Acessed millions of pounds in profit. on 14/11/2018] 5 www.theguardian.com/ are actually Fairtrade. The company McDonald’s is one of the most successful commentisfree/2018/sep/06/save-earth-disposable- recently scored a mere 8.5 out of 100 in coffee-cup-green [Acessed on 8/11/2018] 6 www. the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark global brands with its famous ‘golden choice.com.au/food-and-drink/drinks/tea-and- rankings. 27 companies of the 101 rated arches’ recognisable across the world. coffee/articles/are-takeaway-coffee-cups-recyclable received a score below 10.13 It has been operating since 1955 and [Acessed on 15/11/2018] 7 motorwayservicesonline. has over 34,000 branches in over 100 co.uk/Franchise [Acessed on /1311/2018] 8 www. Nestlé has recently paid Starbucks $7.1 franchisebusiness.com.au/news/can-franchisees- countries. choose-their-own-suppliers [Acessed on 9/11/2018] billion for the retail rights of Starbucks- McDonald’s has certainly not been 9 motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Extra [Acessed on branded coffee – Nestlé is also in our 12/11/2018] 10 www.foodtravelexperts.com [Acessed list of top five unethical companies and synonymous with ethical or sustainable on 13/11/2018] 11 killercoke.org [Acessed on this will see Starbucks coffee added to practices over the years. It became 14/11/2018] 12 www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ the Nestlé boycott list. Starbucks coffee particularly notorious over the ‘McLibel’ mar/01/indian-traders-boycott-coca-cola-for-straining- water-resources [Acessed on 12/11/2018] 13 www. shops are also under boycott for failure to case in the 1990s, when it sued a couple of protestors for distributing a leaflet, corporatebenchmark.org [Acessed on 12/11/2018] switch to organic milk. 14 ww.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/01/ leading to a ten-year trial – the longest in franchisees-advised-to-steal-workers-wages-inquiry- UK history. hears [Acessed on 12/11/2018]

22 The ethical novice ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 Coffee shops Colin Birch with a light-hearted guide to trying, and sometimes failing, to be ethical.

OK, I admit it – I love drinking coffee. And, more coffee and charge me two grand for it when it finally arrives. specifically, I love drinking coffee in coffee shops, Obviously, this is not the case, as anyone who’s ever stood in because, perversely, I find it incredibly relaxing filling line for a coffee knows, you’ll almost certainly receive it inside my body with full-strength caffeine in a loud, bustling six months and it’ll only cost two grand if you ordered a couple overcrowded public space. of sandwiches with it. You can’t move for coffee shops right now – they’re pretty So, given that I’m not going to give up my guilty pleasure, much the only shops on our high streets making money. how can I find an ethically sound coffee shop? Some basic There’s Starbucks, Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, Starbucks again, research suggests that I need to use small independents rather Caffè Nero again … you get the picture – maybe there’s so than the big chains. It makes sense: not only will I be supporting many because we all need regular caffeine kicks to stop us a small local business, but I’ll also be able to look like a falling asleep as we try to complete the 18 hours of work a day maverick outsider, and not just someone who’s been thrown required to earn enough cash to buy their over-priced coffees? out of Starbucks for falsely claiming to be Piers Morgan and The Emperor Ming. However, my more ethically sound friends have been imploring me to think carefully about where to indulge my However, a lot of independent coffee shops have a ‘hipster- habit. They say I should be angry about the questionable tax ish’ reputation and even worse names – I couldn’t possibly bring arrangements of certain corporate owners; I should be angry myself to enter establishments called ‘The Department of Coffee about the way they overwork their staff and pay so many and Social Affairs’, ‘The Fields Beneath’, or ‘Love in a Cup’, of them the bare minimum wage. The problem from my never mind drink in them – a place simply called ‘Not Starbucks perspective though is that to get really angry about or Costa’ would be far more appealing. these things usually requires the consumption of The only other alternative is to several large espressos of the kind that only they eschew drinking in shops and sell. have an ethically sound coffee However, in a bid to be more ethically aware machine to make my favourite I have started to examine my public coffee drinks at home with. But consumption. Thankfully, because I ‘drink there’s one serious drawback: in’ I don’t have to sip from one of their terrible in my experience, people only single-use cups. This doesn’t just have ethical ever receive coffee machines as advantages – in Starbucks it also stops me having wedding presents, and I’m not to go through the tortuous ritual of thinking up a sure my partner would accept a false name for them to write on my cup because marriage proposal based solely on I don’t want to advertise the fact that I go there. my wish for more ethically suitable My inability to think up plausible ones has so far latte … seen me be ‘Piers Morgan,’ ‘Josef Stalin’, and ‘The But, what the hell – I love coffee Emperor Ming’, which leads to me being booed so much it’s probably worth a try! and hissed by the other customers whenever they’re shouted out, more than I would be by my friends if they knew I went there. I could use my real identity, but I don’t like to give my personal details to a complete stranger who’s working for a massive corporation – if I wanted to do that I’d join Facebook. Basically, the only word I want to see written on my disposable coffee cup is ‘biodegradable’. I’m also trying to have more sympathy for coffee-shop staff, given their poor working Theerakarn | Dreamstime.com © Mongkol conditions, but I struggle – when someone describes themselves as a barista, I still can’t help mistaking it for barrister, which confuses me, as I then expect them to keep me waiting five months for my

23 Product Tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org The tea and coffee certification schemes

At a global level, about 17% of tea is certified Fairtrade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance, or Utz.27 But, in Kenya, which supplies the biggest portion of the UK market, more than 80% of tea is certified by one of these schemes.28 Fairtrade To understand Fairtrade, it helps to know a bit of the Picking Fairtrade tea on a farm supplying Cafedirect. history because, to a great extent, That last point is a bit of a snag, the Fairtrade minimum, which is between Fairtrade arose however, and a common cause of $1 and $1.40/lb depending on the type. as a response to confusion. Being certified Fairtrade the collapse of the does not mean that a producer is selling Rainforest Alliance and International Coffee Agreement. its produce as Fairtrade. Certified tea This agreement had regulated how producers on average only manage to Utz merge much coffee each country was allowed to sell around 7% of their tea on Fairtrade Rainforest Alliance and Utz are two more export, stabilising prices and keeping them 29 terms. The average across all products is modern certification schemes, now much reasonably high. It was partly a product of about 40% for small farmer organisations, bigger than Fairtrade. They are merging the cold war: the US was frightened that 30 and 20% for estates. into a single new program at the end Latin American coffee producers would of 2019, which will keep the Rainforest turn to communism if they were too It’s basically an extra fifth on top Alliance name.35 immiserated by low, volatile coffee prices. The Fairtrade premiums are currently set Both schemes are purely focused on The International Coffee Agreement at US $ 0.50/kg tea, and $0.20/lb coffee.31 policing production, and don’t have collapsed in 1989, and the result was a The market prices, meanwhile, are at any fixed pricing structures. However, horrendous drop in world coffee prices around $2.50 /kg tea,32 and $1.10/ lb guaranteeing higher standards, if it works, which threw many coffee farmers into coffee.33 In other words, both premiums should naturally cause prices to rise, since desperate poverty. provide about an extra fifth on top of the the improvements inevitably have to be market price. paid for. The Fairtrade premiums are The Fairtrade minimum price for tea currently set at US $0.50/kg is currently $1.40-$2.40/kg, depending on the region. Mostly, the market price hasn’t tea, and $0.20/lb coffee ... both gone below this, so the minimum price premiums provide about an hasn’t been doing anything although, in 2014, the tea price collapsed in Malawi, extra fifth on top of the market and the minimum price kicked in there.34 price. The coffee price fluctuates more wildly, and has much more frequently gone below This history is why Fairtrade put so much focus on prices – it was, basically, Our worries about the Utz-Rainforest Alliance merger stepping into the void left by the collapse We are concerned about the possibility of the Utz-Rainforest Alliance merger in this agreement. It has a fixed premium leading to a watering down of standards, and recently published an open letter that must be paid on top of the market signed by fourteen UK environmental and workers’ rights organisations urging the price, and it has a minimum price that new organisation to combine the strong bits of each standard, rather than the weak must be paid when the market price falls bits. See www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/open-letter-rainforest-alliance-utz below it, as a safety net. • Currently, for example, Utz forbids employers to ask for working weeks over 60 To complement this, regulations were hours, while the Rainforest Alliance allows it in ‘exceptional circumstances’. added. To get certified, a producer must show that it is meeting certain social and • And Rainforest Alliance specifies that agricultural land cannot have been recently deforested, whereas Utz allows deforestation of anything other than primary or environmental standards. It can then ‘old growth’ forest. attempt to sell its produce at the Fairtrade price, if it can find a buyer. Current signs look rather worrying.

24 Tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

(Utz buyers are supposed to pay a typically 10% on top of the market price.39 of Just Change India – the producer co- premium over the market price, but it is As above, Fairtrade’s, in the case of tea and operatives. This is very unusual, especially negotiated between buyer and seller, not coffee, is about 20%. in relation to tea production. fixed. It is generally substantially lower Volunteer groups, fair trade shops, than Fairtrade’s). Organic food co-operatives, community groups Rainforest Alliance tends to have a and social enterprises can sell Just Change stronger focus on environmental features, For a crop to be products in the UK. and Utz on social ones, but both standards marketed as organic Find out more or find a local stockist at regulate both. in Europe, it must https://justchangeuk.wordpress.com be grown using organic production Fairtrade vs Utz and methods according The Ethical Tea Rainforest Alliance to European legislation, which prioritise Partnership techniques such as crop rotation, Rainforest Alliance and Utz have been biological crop protection, green The Ethical Tea Partnership is an industry studied a lot less than Fairtrade. Results manuring and composting, and it cannot group that was set up in 1997. It used that do exist are mixed, but some do use manufactured pesticides or fertilisers. to work as a certification scheme and suggest environmental and socio- The growing and processing sites are conduct audits, but now it has shifted economic benefits, including higher audited at least once a year. direction and instead says that it aims to 36,37 productivity and higher income. The Soil Association standard does “tackle complex deep-rooted issues that However, any scheme that relies on also contain a few lines on workers’ rights, cannot be addressed sufficiently through 40 policing alone is dependent on being saying that the employer should adhere certification alone”. Its members include able to pull it off. And studies like the to the core standards of the International Unilever, Typhoo, Tetley, Twinings, Bettys 41 Sheffield University one mentioned on Labour Organisation, although this and Taylors, and Cafeology. page 28 suggest that policing is not always obviously isn’t the focus. watertight. As far as tea goes, it is conventionally How to make the Thus, overall, we consider Utz and grown on intensive monocultures, which Rainforest Alliance to be weaker schemes, has deleterious effects on biodiversity most virtuous cuppa and reward them with only half a mark, and also encourages pests. Indian tea thus • Buy tea from a company which is while Fairtrade certification gets a full tends to be grown with a lot of pesticides. transparent about where it sources mark. The fixed price side of what All Kenyan tea is basically pesticide free, from, and the more it can tell you Fairtrade does is unique – basically, it is however, because the high altitude and the about the precise place where your the only certification scheme that directly strains used inhibit pests naturally. tea comes from, the better. It is not addresses things in terms of cold hard only useful for workers to know cash. Direct trade and who their tea is getting sold to, but really detailed information of where Fair for Life specialist produce your tea comes from is evidence Fair for Life was launched Higher quality produce tends to benefit of a long-term relationship with in Switzerland in 2006. It producers more, since the greater skill producers, which is important for has received praise for its required to produce it means that the producers’ well-being. social and environmental producers can command a greater portion • Buy tea from dedicated Fairtrade requirements, which of the final value. companies like Cafédirect or are more comprehensive than the other Furthermore, a key factor for Traidcraft. certification schemes. It certifies the producers’ well-being is long term, • Choose plastic-free tea bags if you whole company group, rather than single stable relationships with buyers. Such can (page 32) or loose leaf. brands, and it also certifies producers and relationships – sometimes called ‘direct • Avoid cow’s milk – see our guide to manufacturers in developed countries, trade’, are becoming more common in plant milks in EC169 and on our which Fairtrade does not. And it is very coffee but are rarer in tea, as the variability website. transparent, publishing a summary of all of the crop means that buyers constantly • Only boil the water that you need. of its assessments on its website.38 want to vary blends to keep a constant However, it is like Utz and Rainforest taste. However, if you can find directly Alliance in that it doesn’t have fixed traded tea it is definitely worth considering prices. It does have a premium and a as an ethical option. minimum price, but they are negotiated One option is to join the Just Change between buyer and seller (as Utz has, for movement. Just Change tea and other the premium part only). The premium is products are 100% owned by the members

References: 27 Sheffield University, 2018 The Global Business of Forced Labour: Report of Findings 28 Sarah Mohan, Sustainable Tea Value Chains 29 https://www. fairtrade.org.uk/Farmers-and-Workers/Tea 30 Fairtrade International, 2015, Scope and benefits of fairtrade31 www.fairtrade.net/standards/price-and-premium-info. html 32 www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=tea&months=300 33 www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-chart-data 34 www.fairtrade.org. uk/Media-Centre/Blog/2017/December/Good-cuppa-10-facts-about-Fairtrade-tea 35 https://utz.org/merger 36 E.g. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220388 .2017.1327663 37 Stathers et al. 2013, Poverty Impact of Social and Environmental Voluntary Standard Systems in Kenyan Tea 38 http://fairfacts.thedfta.org/simple- comparison/2015/ffl 39 www.fairforlife.org/pmws/indexDOM.php?client_id=fairforlife&page_id=difference&lang_iso639=en 40 www.ethicalteapartnership.org/project/ monitoring-certification 41 www.ethicalteapartnership.org

25 Product Tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Is your teacup half empty, or half full? © Yevheniikaz | Dreamstime.com Josie Wexler looks into the Assam region of India, and Kenya to find out how we can add ethics to our cuppa.

ea is the most popular Brand Certification Tea certification manufactured drink consumed Cafédirect 100% Fairtrade in the world. The amount schemes T London Tea Co 100% Fairtrade consumed is equivalent to all of the others There is quite a complex array of different – including coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol Traidcraft 100% Fairtrade 1 certifications used which are shown on – combined. 100% Fairtrade, Steenbergs the table on the left. Brands of the same Selling it provides a livelihood to Some Organic company group are shown together. millions of people in the producing Some Fairtrade or Organic Clipper countries, the largest of which are China, (100% one or the other) India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka.2 However, the 100% Rainforest Alliance, Lipton industry is also rife with dire problems, Some Organic The greenhouse gas particularly terrible working conditions on Lyons 100% Rainforest Alliance emissions of tea Indian tea plantations. PG Tips 100% Rainforest Alliance If you put cow’s milk in your tea, 100% Organic and Fair Pukka it can easily amount to about the Types of tea covered for Life same amount of greenhouse gas 100% Organic, some This guide covers all tea from the Camellia Qi emissions as the whole of the rest of Fairtrade sinensis plant. That includes black tea the drink. Cows are high greenhouse (‘normal tea’ in British parlance), white Yorkshire Tea 100% Rainforest Alliance gas emitters, partly due to belching 100% Rainforest Alliance so much methane. To find out how tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, pu-erh Taylors and Earl Grey. or UTZ to avoid contributing to this, see our guide to plant milks on our website. The difference between these is just Clearspring 100% Organic Discounting the milk, the biggest the processing. Black tea and pu-erh are Yogi 100% Organic portion of the greenhouse gas fully oxidised (broken up and then left Hambleden 100% Organic to ferment – the process is stopped by emissions comes from boiling 100% Organic, some the kettle – more than all of the heating); the others are unoxidised or Hampstead Fairtrade cultivation, processing and transport partially oxidised. Earl Grey is black tea Higher Living 100% Organic combined.24 It is thus definitely worth with the addition of oil of bergamot. Jacksons Some Fairtrade making sure that you don’t overfill it. Twinings Some Fairtrade or Organic The total carbon emissions of a cup of tea are about 40 g CO2eq for black Thompson’s Some Organic or Fairtrade tea,25 or double it for tea with milk. Dragonfly Some Organic The average UK per capita carbon Brew tea Some Rainforest Alliance emissions (including imports) are about 13 tonnes CO eq per year.26 Tetley Some Rainforest Alliance 2 So, drinking ten cups of milky tea Teapigs Some Rainforest Alliance a day will amount to about 2% of Quickbrew Nothing your carbon footprint – it’s not a Typhoo Some Rainforest Alliance transatlantic flight, but it’s still worth not overfilling the kettle. Ridgways Some Fairtrade or Organic Heath & Heather Some Organic Melrose’s Nothing References: 1 Macfarlane, Alan; Macfarlane, Iris Lift instant Nothing (2004). The Empire of Tea 2 Fao, Committee On Fresh Brew Nothing Commodity Problems Intergovernmental Group On Tea Twenty-second Session Naivasha, Kenya, 25-27 Glengettie Nothing May 2016

26 Tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE East African tea producers The vast bulk of tea internationally is sold in enormous auctions, and tea trading is, as per usual, very concentrated. Seven companies buy 90% of the tea traded into Europe and North America: Unilever, Tata, and Associated British Foods; Van Rees and James Finlay (these two are traders which don’t sell to consumers); and Teekanne and Ostfriesische Tee Gesellschaft (these two do sell branded tea but not in the UK).21 Improving things for Kenyan farmers Reports about certification schemes in Kenya have been more positive than in India.22 Fairtrade was set up for smallholder farmers. To be certified, smallholders Photo: UTZ Photo: need to belong to co-ops, and decisions Tea being weighed at a Kenyan UTZ-certified tea estate. about how the premium is to be spent are made by the co-op. It is still the case that The bulk of our tea comes from Kenya, Yet tea is generally exported as dust the most powerless players can get left and the system under which it is produced or leaves and all of these high-profit out of the decision making, particularly there is very different from in India (see downstream activities occur in importing smallholders’ employees. However, the overleaf). For one thing, two-thirds of countries.19 system inherently involves the democratic Kenyan tea is produced by smallholders. Unfortunately, packed-at-origin tea, participation of a bigger group than it This is more representative of global exported from Kenya as a finished product, does in the case of estates. production nowadays. Although tea was doesn’t currently seem to exist, so it isn’t As well as more positive reports traditionally produced on plantations, really possible to address this problem as about Fairtrade, there are also more and in India about three-quarters of it a consumer. It may be something to watch positive reports about Utz and Rainforest still is, there has been a huge growth in for the future however, as Sri Lanka has Alliance than in India, suggesting that the smallholder contribution over the past successfully moved into exporting some of they can improve both livelihoods and twenty years. They now produce most of its tea in finished form, so it doesn’t seem environmental protection.23 the tea in the world. to be impossible.20 More than three million Kenyan families depend on selling tea for their livelihoods.17 It is a very important source of income: one report stated: “tea smallholder farmers in Kenya are perceived as relatively well-off compared to other smallholder farmer types.”18 However, that doesn’t mean that there are no social problems in Kenyan tea. Children are known to work on tea farms. And the employees that smallholders James Finlay-owned employ tend to be paid very little and to tea estate in Kericho, have very few rights. Kenya, which supplies Fairtrade tea to The London

Structural problems Tea Company. Company Tea The London Photo:

As is often the case, it is the downstream References: 17 www.rainforest-alliance.org/articles/kenyan-tea-farmers-switch-to-renewable-energy 18 stages of tea manufacturing where the big Stathers et al. 2013, Poverty Impact of Social and Environmental Voluntary Standard Systems in Kenyan Tea profits are made: blending (selecting the 19 trueprice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/TP-Tea.pdf 20 https://worldteanews.com/market-trends-data- and-insights/upheaval-black-ctc-exports 21 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/11/1102/pdf 22 Stathers et different types of tea from different places al. 2013, Poverty Impact of Social and Environmental Voluntary Standard Systems in Kenyan Tea 23 Brewing A to mix together), packing (making it into Sustainable Future: Certifying Kenya’s Smallholder Tea Farmers, 2007–2017 24 https://steenbergs.co.uk/blog/ tea bags, or into packs of loose tea) and whats-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-cuppa 25 Doublet et al, 2010, Life cycle assessment of drinking Darjeeling marketing. tea Conventional and organic Darjeeling tea 26 Committee on Climate Change, June 2018, Reducing UK emissions, 2018 Progress Report to Parliament

27 Product Tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org The appalling conditions on Indian tea plantations

Although tea is strongly associated with India in many people’s minds, only about 20% of our tea comes from there; most of it comes from East Africa.3 However, Indian tea is considered a vital part of many blends, particularly the tea from Assam, the ‘tea state’, where the bulk of Indian tea is produced. Assam has very hot and humid weather which gives its tea a strong, malty flavour. It is considered to add ‘body’ to a blend.4 The issues in India – particularly Assam – are profound. The tea industry of the Raj was famous for extremely brutal treatment of workers, and we still seem to be living in its very dark shadow. The plantation system Most Indian tea is produced on huge Photo: Traidcraft Photo: plantations, or ‘estates’, under a system Woman picking tea on an Assam tea estate that was established during British rule. Thousands of people work on each estate, and over a million people work on the tea This is because much of the wage is Certification doesn’t estates in Assam alone. supposed to be provided ‘in kind’ in The plantation system could be viewed the form of housing, healthcare and seem to be helping as a system of semi-bondage. Workers food. Plantation employers have been Many sources have reported that don’t just work on the plantation, they live required to provide these things since the certification (of all kinds – Fairtrade, on the plantation. To keep living there, Plantations Labour Act of 1951. Utz and Rainforest Alliance – see the a family must have at least one member The big problem is that these ‘in article on page 24 for more detail) doesn’t working there, and jobs are passed to next kind’ benefits are generally not actually mean better conditions in the Indian tea of kin. Nearly all of the families have been happening. Thus, workers have to use their estates. The Sheffield University study living and working there for generations, paltry wages to pay for these things too. found “very little difference between the having been brought there by the British The conditions are worst in Assam. labour practices and living standards of from other parts of India. This means that The Assam labour minister has himself ethically certified and non-certified tea they often are quite culturally isolated described the plantations.”8 – most still speak a different language conditions on The Fairtrade from the other locals – and are generally the tea estates 5 The Assam labour minister Foundation points regarded as ‘outsiders’. as “almost like out that the lack This system has put the workers in a slavery.”6 has himself described the of difference on quite powerless position as, if they stopped Tea workers conditions on the tea estates as the Fairtrade ones working on the plantation, they would have to pick 24 “almost like slavery.” may be because have to leave their homes. kg of tea each they generally only day, which means manage to sell a Wages and conditions picking extremely small percentage of their tea on Fairtrade fast all day. If they fail, deductions are terms, in some cases as little as 2%. That on tea plantations made from their already meagre wages. means that they won’t be reaping much of The supposed ‘minimum’ wage for tea Meanwhile healthcare and sanitation are the financial benefits of certification – they workers is set on a regional basis by a minimal or non-existent and food rations won’t get much Fairtrade premium.9 A collective bargaining agreement between are insufficient. Workers are also subject producer being Fairtrade certified only the government, certain unions and the to frequent intimidation and abuse. A means that they have the right to sell their plantation owners. It is actually not a recent study by Sheffield University found produce as Fairtrade if they can find a minimum, it is what all tea workers get that debt bondage is quite common, buyer, it doesn’t mean that they actually paid. with workers having borrowed money do (see the section on certification on page The rate is much lower than the from their employers at usurious rates of 24). minimum wage for other Indian workers. interest.7

28 Tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

However, local workers’ rights The resistance campaigners from Assam have claimed that the Fairtrade premium doesn’t always Indian tea workers are not get spent on things that benefit workers. just lying down and

A joint committee of management and taking all of this. Unrest Traidcraft Photo: workers is supposed to decide how it is has been growing, spent, but they say that the workers are particularly over the frequently too terrified of the management last decade, with to contribute meaningfully.10 strikes and protests There has always been controversy at tea estates, about Fairtrade certifying large estates, hunger strikes, due to the likelihood of problems like this and occasional arising. outbreaks of Rainforest Alliance and Utz also put violence.15,16 out a statement after the publication of As a result, the Sheffield University study, saying that things have started the situation in Assam is particularly to change, albeit only challenging and that standards alone could incrementally. After not resolve it.11 years of stagnation, since 2015 the agreed wage has How much is the risen somewhat in Assam. However, it is still very low. industry struggling? Traidcraft Exchange (the A tea picker shows her insufficient food rations. campaigning part of Traidcraft) is running The estate owners are a mix of a campaign called ‘Who Picked my Tea?” international companies, Indian to get the big six UK tea companies to businesses and private individuals. reveal the names of all the tea estates from How much the working conditions which they source. are due to the It argues that What we can do Indian tea this will make it industry struggling While nobody knows which Given that the conditions are reported much easier for to be similar throughout, it is not easy financially is bit of tea comes from where, campaigners to to know what to do as a consumer. hard to tell. pressurise estate Just ceasing to buy tea from Assam Campaigners have nobody is in a position to call owners to improve would do more harm than good – the pointed out that out estates who are flaunting conditions. The workers depend on the tea estates. conditions are Codes of Conduct. tea companies do Buying Fairtrade may have some very similar across have Supply Chain value as, if there was more premium estates who sell Codes of Conduct kicking around, it is likely that at least both expensive and but, while nobody knows which bit of tea some of it would be used in ways cheap tea, and argued that they can’t all be comes from where, nobody is in a position that would benefit workers. However, equally broke.12 to call out estates who are flaunting them. given what the campaigners from However, the estate owners claim that Four of the big six have now revealed Assam say, it doesn’t seem sufficient they are on the verge of financial collapse. them: Yorkshire, Twinings, Clipper and to rely on it on its own. Utz and Prices are very low, and climate change Tetley. (It is too soon to see any results of Rainforest Alliance don’t seem to be is making it harder to grow tea in India very meaningful in this context. this yet). That leaves PG Tips and Typhoo profitably.13 to go. One thing that you can do is join Conditions on the estates have Traidcraft’s campaign and write to the worsened since the 1990s, when India two tea companies who haven’t yet started implementing free trade reforms: revealed which tea estates they source opening its borders to imported tea which from. resulted in a collapse in domestic prices, For more information see and cutting government support to the www.traidcraft.org.uk/tea-campaign industry.14 © Nipaporn Panyacharoen | Dreamstime.com © Nipaporn Panyacharoen

References: 3 https://www.cbi.eu/sites/default/files/market.../product-factsheet-uk-tea-2016.pdf 4 www.yorkshiretea.co.uk/brew-news/assam-work-in-2016; www. cupandleaf.com/blog/assam-black-tea 5 Sarah Besky, 2014, The Darjeeling Distinction, The Regents of the University of California 6 www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen- security/u-s-ends-refueling-support-in-yemen-war-as-pressure-builds-on-saudi-arabia-idUSKCN1NF06R 7 Sheffield University, 2018 The Global Business of Forced Labour: Report of Findings 8 Sarah Besky, 2014, The Darjeeling Distinction, The Regents of the University of California; www.reuters.com/article/us-india-forcedlabour- tea/exclusive-expose-of-labor-abuse-brews-trouble-for-slave-free-indian-tea-idUSKCN1IW00H 8 Sarah Besky, 2014, The Darjeeling Distinction, The Regents of the University of California; www.reuters.com/article/us-india-forcedlabour-tea/exclusive-expose-of-labor-abuse-brews-trouble-for-slave-free-indian-tea-idUSKCN1IW00H 9 www.fairtrade.org.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/2018/May/Tackling-poverty-in-Assam 10 Talk by representatives from PAJHRA (the Promotion and Advancement of Justice, Harmony and Rights of Adavasis) Manchester 9-11-2018 11 https://utz.org/corporate-news/strengthening-our-engagement-in-indias-challenging-tea-sector 12 Sarah Besky, 2014, The Darjeeling Distinction, The Regents of the University of California 13 www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/troubles-brewing-in-indias-tea-sector/ article21979485.ece 14 Sheffield University, 2018 The Global Business of Forced Labour: Report of Findings; www.mainstreamweekly.net/article588.html 15 www. dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2018/Aug-07/459411-thousands-of-indian-tea-workers-strike-for-50-cent-pay-rise.ashx 16 www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/five- injured-as-assam-tea-owner-brother-open-fire-at-irate-labourers/story-XCQbb3YNIUpk4PZLbiSTgJ.html

29 Product Tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

USING THE TABLES Environment Animals People Politics +ve USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher Positive ratings (+ve): the score, the better the • Company Ethos: company across the criticism = full mark, categories. e = half mark. H = worst rating, E h = middle rating, • Product Sustainability: empty = best rating Maximum of five positive (no criticisms). marks.

Hampstead Tea [F&O] 17 e 2 Hampstead Tea & Coffee Co Clearspring [O] 16 e 1 Clearspring Ltd Hambleden Herbs green [O] 16 e 1 Hambleden Herbs Hampstead Tea [O] 16 e 1 Hampstead Tea & Coffee Co The London Tea Co [F&O] 16 H e 2 Cafédirect Steenbergs [F&O] 16 2 Steenbergs Qi [F&O] 16 2 Herbal Health Ltd

Cafedirect [F] 15 H e 1 Cafédirect Dragonfly [O] 15 1 Tea Times Holding Ltd Steenbergs [O] 15 1 Steenbergs

The London Tea Co [F] 15 H e 1 Cafédirect Qi [O] 15 1 Herbal Health Ltd Dragonfly 14 Tea Times Holding Ltd Steenbergs 14 Steenbergs Brew Tea Company [RA] 13.5 H 0.5 Cafeology Higher Living [O] 13.5 H h 1 Only Natural Products Ltd Thompson’s green tea [O] 13.5 H h 1 Punjana Ltd Brew Tea Company 13 H Cafeology Heath & Heather green [O] 13 H H 1 Apeejay Surrendra Group Ridgways [F] 13 H H 1 Apeejay Surrendra Group Thompson’s 12.5 H h Punjana Ltd

Traidcraft [F] 12.5 H h h h H e 1 Traidcraft plc Typhoo [RA] 12.5 H H 0.5 Apeejay Surrendra Group Clipper [F&O] 12 h H H h h h 2 Koninklijke Wessanen Fresh Brew, Glengettie, Lift 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group Melrose, Heath & Heather 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group Typhoo 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group

Yogi Tea [O] 12 H h h H H e 1 Sikh Dharma International Clipper [O] or [F] 11 h H H h h h 1 Koninklijke Wessanen Taylors of Harrogate [RA] 10 h h H H H h 0.5 Bettys & Taylors Group Yorkshire Tea [RA] 10 h h H H H h 0.5 Bettys & Taylors Group Tetley, Teapigs [RA] 7.5 H h h h h H H H h h 0.5 Tata Sons Tetley, Quickbrew 7 H h h h h H H H h h Tata Sons Pukka [F&O] 4.5 h H HHHHHH h HhHH 2 Unilever Twinings [F&O] 4 HhHHHHHHHHh H H 2 Associated British Foods Jacksons of Piccadilly [F] 3 HhHHHHHHHHh H H 1 Associated British Foods Lipton [O] 3 h H HHHHHHhh HhHH 1 Unilever Twinings [O] 3 HhHHHHHHHHh H H 1 Associated British Foods PG Tips, Lyons [RA] 2.5 h H HHHHHHhh HhHH 0.5 Unilever Lipton 2 h H HHHHHHhh HhHH Unilever Twinings 2 HhHHHHHHHHh H H Associated British Foods

See all the research behind these ratings on www.ethicalconsumer.org. For definitions of all the categories go to www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings F = Fairtrade Foundation RA = Rainforest Alliance O = organic

30 Tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

pesticides banned in Europe. And it m gets a worst in nearly every one of nsu er The companies o .o r our policy ratings. c g l Our best buys for a

c tea are Cafédirect,

behind the brands Cafédirect sells tea under its own i

t Traidcraft and Unilever is the biggest manufacturer of name and also as the London e Tea Company. It was the first UK Y Steenbergs. They tea in the world. It makes PG Tips, Lyons BES T BU and Lipton tea, and bought Pukka Herbs company to sell Fairtrade drinks in all sell Fairtrade tea in 2017. the UK. It was started by Traidcraft, and both Cafédirect and Oxfam, Equal Exchange Trading and Twin Traidcraft go beyond Fairtrade, It is a British-Dutch company, and it Trading. Nowadays Oikocredit owns working with farmers on the ground works across the food and household 28%, and Oxfam 9%. to improve livelihoods. sectors, selling home and personal care Cafédirect just sells black tea bags. It aims to go “above and beyond Fairtrade brands (such as Persil, Domestos, Dove Traidcraft sells black tea bags, loose and Vaseline) alongside food brands (such criteria” and invests 50% of its profits into Producers Direct, a UK charity that works tea and Earl Grey. Steenbergs sells a as Marmite, Pot Noodle, Magnum, and wide variety of more expensive teas, Ben & Jerry’s). The company lost marks with farmers to improve sustainability and both bagged and loose. for making political donations in the livelihoods. It is a certified B-Corp. USA (93% to Republicans), as well as Cafédirect is now the seventh largest for having unaccounted for subsidiaries tea brand in the UK, and the fifth largest 15 in tax havens, and operating in countries coffee brand.46 which required animal testing. Traidcraft is actually two separate Unilever owns some of its own tea estates organisations, Traidcraft Plc, which sells in Kenya, but also buys through the products, and Traidcraft Exchange, which 12.5 big tea auctions in Kenya, India and Sri runs campaigns on workers’ rights and 42 Lanka, as most companies do. trade justice. As we have publicised Pukka is certified by Fair for Life. When online, Traidcraft Plc almost ceased we spoke to Fair for Life, in spring 2018, trading, but is relaunching for 2019 with they said that when the certification was a smaller range designed to return the reassessed the company group would business to profit. have to be taken into account. There has Traidcraft started in 1979 and pioneered been no update yet. Fairtrade and ethical consumption in Tata Sons is the second biggest the UK. It started off largely producing Fairtrade products to be sold through manufacturer of tea in the world. It 16 bought Tetley in 2000, and Tata Tea is churches. It now sells the UK’s widest the leading tea brand sold in India. It is range of Fairtrade products. In common also the company behind Teapigs, which with other dedicated Fairtrade businesses has irritated some people by posing as a like Cafédirect it doesn’t just buy Other companies that came high up cutesy little upstart, which it never was.43 Fairtrade-certified produce but goes the table were not made Best Buys beyond it, actively seeking out the because there was less evidence that Tata owns 51 tea plantations across India most marginalised groups of suppliers they were involved in improving 44 and Sri Lanka, but also buys much of its and getting involved with them on the workers’ rights, which was felt to be tea in the tea auctions. ground.47 important in this market. A successful strike on a Tata plantation in Steenbergs sells a wide variety of October 2015 has been widely described expensive teas, as well as spices. Around as having given a morale boost to the 90% of the company’s produce is tea workers’ rights movement in India. certified Fairtrade, including all of its tea, BRANDS TO AVOID The trigger was Tata deciding to cut the and most of it is organic. In many cases tea pickers’ bonus on its Munnar tea it lists the estate or area from which the It is worth avoiding Tata (Tetley, plantation in Kerala from 20% to 10%. tea is sourced. It is a small family-run Teapigs), due to its involvement in Six thousand women tea pickers calling firm, set up in 2003 by Axel and Sophie so many unsavoury areas, including themselves ‘Pembilai Orumai’ (‘women’s Steenberg in North Yorkshire. arms sales to unpleasant regimes. unity’) went on strike, and after nine days of sit-in protests, Tata put the bonus back as it was.45 Tata is one of India’s most gigantic companies, also owning, amongst many Tax avoidance References: 42 www.unilever.com/sustainable- others, Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Steel, Tata living/what-matters-to.../kericho-tea-estates.html 43 Chemicals and Tata Teleservices. It gets • Unilever (PG Tips, Pukka, Lyons, thefoodiegifthunter.co.uk/teapigs-tetley-tata-and- marked down severely across the sectors Lipton) ABF (Twinings, Jacksons of telling-the-absolute-truth 44 https://ipfs.io/ipfs/ that it works in. Its military divisions sell Piccadilly), Tata (Tetley, Teapigs) were QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1 rated as worst. mXWo6uco/wiki/Tata_Global_Beverages.html 45 arms to a number of unsavoury regimes www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/jayaseelan- including Saudi Arabia and Israel. Its • All the other companies were rated raj/women-strike-back-protest-of-pembillai-orumai- chemicals division retails neonicotinoid as best. tea-workers 46 www.revolvy.com/page/Cafédirect

31 Product Tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Is there plastic in my tea?

Find out more from Ruth Walton of The Green Shopper website.

Many of you will have heard that some What is microplastic? KEY POINTS teabags contain plastic. Consumer • Many tea bags contain plastic. awareness is growing fast, following the Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic, • The alternative, Polylactic Acid 2017 BBC2 documentary ‘Inside the officially defined as any piece of plastic (PLA), can contain material from Factory’. less than 5mm in size. There are two genetically modified sources. In fact, most ‘pillow’ and ‘pyramid’ categories: • primary microplastics are up to 5mm • PLA teabags should go into council style teabags rely on polypropylene fibres in size when manufactured; food waste, as they won’t break embedded in the outer layer to heat-seal down in most home composting the edges shut. Millions of teabags are • secondary microplastics are small conditions. home composted or put into food waste pieces made from larger items schemes. They end up in the soil, where degrading in the environment. • The best way to dispose of plastic Research has found them turning up in all tea bags is to rip them open and the microscopic plastic fibres accumulate sorts of places, including seafood, salt, tap compost the leaves, but put the and pose a risk to wildlife. bag into the bin. This environmental pollution may be water and even in our bodies. invisible, but it is not insignificant. With • Watch out for hidden plastics in 165 million cups of tea drunk in Britain sachets or string-and-tag bags. What about organic each day, that’s a whole lot of microplastic on its way into our soil and water. teabags? You may be thinking to yourself “I’m fine – I only buy organic teabags”. Don’t be fooled. The outer layer of a teabag counts Which teabags are plastic-free? as packaging, which can contain plastic Teabags Company and still be certified as organic. Clipper (Q) all teabags made from October 2018 use GM-free PLA Dr Stuart’s/Higher Living (E) some string-and-tag; pyramids use corn starch PLA Essential (W) all string-and-tag All Hampstead Tea Company (W) some string-and-tag, some GM-free PLA pyramids plastic-free Heath & Heather (W) all string-and-tag Why Qi can’t switch yet? Pukka (Q) all string-and-tag Teapigs (W) pyramids use corn starch PLA The Qi brand responded to our Yogi Tea (T) all string-and-tag question saying: Brew Tea (GS) boxes of 40 bags are plastic free, others will switch in 2019 “We have invested heavily though Clearspring (W,E) some loose tea, and plans for plastic free teabags in Spring pre-finance for the farmers’ Dragonfly (MF) House and Speciality ranges are plastic free association to purchase tea bag Some PG Tips (GS) pyramids are plastic free, rest due to switch in 2019 packing machines. The cost of plastic-free Steenbergs (Q) mostly sells loose tea (no teabag); and is phasing out teabags machines which do not use heat Traidcraft (W) some loose tea (no teabag) sealing is prohibitive for us. The only Twinings (Q) only pyramids are plastic free current options we have to achieve Hambleden Herbs (T) will have some plastic-free teabags in the new year fully plastic free would be to act like Cafedirect/London Tea Company (Q) has goals to reduce plastic everyone else and just export a bulk Action or Qi (Q) for more details see right commodity (tea) for packing in the UK plans for Redbush (F) has spoken to manufacturer about finding alternative or EU, but this goes against everything plastic-free Tetley (MF) has plans (is plastic free in catering packs) we are trying to achieve within the Yorkshire Tea (T) has plans communities we work with. That is adding value in the communities we Floradix/Salus Hambleden work with. Lipton “... Despite having a supplier No response London Fruit & Herb/Ridgways/Typhoo of teabag paper which contains or no plans Taylors (its other brand Yorkshire Tea has plans) bioplastics, we are unable at present Teaology to use these for our Organic teas as Thompson’s they are not classed as GMO free … Tick Tock Tea/11 O’Clock We have manufacturers of paper who are close to being able to provide KEY: Answers taken from questionnaire responses (Q), emails (E), Green Shopping (GS) or Moral Fibres (MF) website, companies’ own websites (W)or Facebook (F), or response to the paper we need which can meet tweets (T). NB This only covers the teabags themselves, not sachets they may be wrapped in, Organic standards”. or wrapping on the box. It also only covers brands in our Tea and Herbal Tea guides.

32 Tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE Ruth Walton – The Green Shopper website – Walton Ruth

What are plastic-free biodegradable teabags from other sources String-and-tag bags that are free from that are non-GMO crops.” plastic can be composted at home. If you teabags made from? want to be completely sure your teabag is plastic free, it’s best to check with the Many ‘plastic-free’ pyramid teabags are Plastic and GM free manufacturer directly. made using polylactic acid (PLA). This is a At the end of October, Clipper announced plant-based polymer (sometimes referred that it has a GM-free PLA solution, to as a bioplastic) which is biodegradable meaning its new plastic-free heat-sealed What about loose leaf? but not domestically compostable. It bags can be certified as organic by the Soil If you want to minimise the waste caused can also be called Soilon. Plant material Association. All Clipper tea bags produced by your daily cuppa, loose leaf tea is by sources include corn starch, which can from October 2018 are plastic-free. far the best option. A metal in-cup infuser come from genetically modified (GM) However, old stock may remain in shops avoids the fuss of a pot and strainer. And maize, which cannot be used in organic for some time, so look out for a label on lots of modern teapots have a built-in teabags. the pack. infuser, meaning that it’s easy to get the tea In February this year, after 200,000 leaves into the compost and wash out the people signed a petition on the 38 Degrees ‘String and tag’ bags pot without clogging the sink. campaign website, PG Tips announced Many high streets and markets have it was going ‘plastic-free’ for its pyramid The other main type of teabag is the speciality tea merchants, where you can bags, with the rest of its teabags due to ‘string-and-tag’ style, where the paper take your own container to be filled. These follow by 2019. layer is folded at the top and secured using shops often have limited choice when it In February, PG tips confirmed “Our a stitch or staple. These bags are usually comes to fair trade and organic options biodegradable teabags are made from used for herbal teas or in catering. but, luckily, there are a few plastic-free PLA which is a material derived from Not all string-and-tag bags are plastic ethical loose-leaf options available to order corn, grown in the US. Current US corn free: look out for crimping around the online. See page 34. growing practices produce a mixed edges which shows the bag might have stream of GM and conventional (non- been heat-sealed, and therefore contain plastic or PLA. Furthermore, they often GM) corn. However, the processing and Sign the petition by The Good come in individual sachets, which can manufacturing process uses a high heat Shopper to ask the Soil Association to process, and no detectable GM material contain a hidden layer of plastic to keep stop certifying plastic teabags: the packet airtight. The string can be made remains ... Longer term, we are working bit.ly/plasticinorganicteabags with our supplier on the development of from polyester or cotton.

33 Product Herbal tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org How comforting is your herbal tea? Ruth Strange finds out more and looks at fair trade labelling and Yogi Tea.

his guide will help you ensure that Where have the fair trade labels gone? when you treat yourself to a nice Thot drink, people and planet have You may have noticed that a number of Fairtrade teas which used to be available, such also been taken into account. as Equal Exchange or Dragonfly Rooibos, are no longer around, or that companies like It’s worth noting that not all of the Clipper, apparently the world’s largest Fairtrade tea brand, has no herbal teas with the colourful alternatives to plain black and Fairtrade logo. Also, some companies whose herbal teas are otherwise all Fairtrade, such green tea are caffeine free, or vegan. Some as Essential and Hampstead Tea Company, have one or two products that are not. blends will contain black or green tea, or We contacted all these companies for answers: dairy products, so do read the ingredients. If you are avoiding caffeine and dairy but craving a hot milky drink, rooibos is a great alternative that can be drunk with (plant-based) milk. See our guide to plant milks in Issue 169 and on the website. At the top of our table are a good “Sadly, we no number of certified organic or Fairtrade longer sell tea in any form herbal teas. Several varieties from Essential …” (however they do still sell and the Hampstead Tea Company are both coffee, see page 12) “…Unfortunately organic and fair trade. Their teabags are it’s not easy to get tea from small farmers on to the retail shelf at a price people are also all plastic free. See page 32 for more Equal Exchange on plastics. willing to pay. Most tea these days, even To avoid tea bags altogether, you can Fairtrade-certified tea, is from plantations and “The only opt for loose teas, or even make your own. people expect a similar price for any tea now. reason that we have In our ‘Beyond Consumerism’ section on Very sad, yes, but we couldn’t continue with shortage in some fair trade page 38, the Grass Roots Remedies Co-op sales the way they were. We don’t support items [is] because mainly we from Edinburgh points out some leaves plantations, particularly Indian tea cultivate according to customers plan and flowers you can pick to make your plantations where workers are but actually needed more than [this] own teas. exploited daily.” quantity… actually in next cultivation season we take [the] decision [to Of the brands which scored above 10 on double the] quantity... to avoid the score table overleaf, the following sold shortage if [orders are] more loose fruit/herb teas than forecast” Hambleden Herbs Steenbergs “Unfortunately, Tick Tock rooibos our Fairtrade Rooibos tea Brew Tea has been discontinued and is no Higher Living longer available – there was simply not Thompson’s (peppermint only) enough demand for it. “...we are pleased to say that our remaining three Dragonfly rooibos teas – Breakfast Rooibos, Earl Grey Rooibos and Vanilla Rooibos – will only use rooibos from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms as of January 2019. Rainforest Alliance certification helps protect the environment as well as ensure sustainable livelihoods. Having spoken at length with rooibos farmers, we feel that Rainforest Alliance’s Dragonfly approach is one that we would like to support.” 34 Herbal tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

It seems that these companies are clearly aiming to source and provide certified products where possible. We would recommend choosing products from such companies, rather than those companies who only provide limited certified options to get in on the trend. “All Clipper Ideally, (as in the Equal Exchange infusions are organic- comment opposite) we would like to see certified, and this is core to our range, more companies using and discussing but dual certified ingredients (e.g. both direct sourcing from small farmers Fairtrade and organic) are often not available rather than plantations, and have chosen in the volumes or quality that we need. We are in Clearspring’s Mu tea as a Best Buy for regular discussion with the Fairtrade Foundation addressing this. Essential tea, also a Best about this challenge. Buy, sources herbs from the SEKEM sustainable development initiative Clipper also sources a range of different herbs, in Egypt, which has a cooperative of e.g. elderflower & nettle, from developed countries employees.4 where Fairtrade certification does not apply. Although not always Fairtrade certified, rest assured that we will only ever work Table highlights with progressive suppliers who look The very top of the table is populated by after their workers.” smaller companies selling all (or almost all) organic products. We recommend organic as it is a regulated certification that aims for more sustainable management of the natural environment. Clipper Small companies seen as offering an “Sadly, we no environmental and social alternative were longer sell tea in any form given a best rating for Environmental …” (however they do still sell Reporting and for Supply Chain coffee, see page 12) “…Unfortunately Management. it’s not easy to get tea from small farmers • Tea Times Holdings, another smaller on to the retail shelf at a price people are company, also got best ratings. Only willing to pay. Most tea these days, even some of its Dragonfly and Tick Fairtrade-certified tea, is from plantations and “The only Tock teas are certified organic, but it people expect a similar price for any tea now. reason that we have discusses this and states that “pesticides Very sad, yes, but we couldn’t continue with shortage in some fair trade and fertilisers are only used when sales the way they were. We don’t support items [is] because mainly we absolutely necessary”. It also states plantations, particularly Indian tea cultivate according to customers plan Essential* that “over many decades” it has “built plantations where workers are but actually needed more than [this] longstanding relationships with tea- exploited daily.” quantity… actually in next cultivation makers and growers in China, Japan, season we take [the] decision [to India and Africa”. double the] quantity... to avoid • Higher Living, although all organic and shortage if [orders are] more a smaller company, was not given best than forecast” ratings as its sister brand, Dr Stuart’s, is not certified.

The remaining companies on the table are larger or uncertified, and/or lost marks under other categories for activities within “Our first their company group. Companies above preference is to find the £10 million turnover threshold are biodynamic ingredients, and expected to have environmental targets, then organic and fairtrade. As and publicly available supply chain biodynamic and fairtrade camomile policies. For example, Essential, London [isn’t always available] we buy Tea Company, and Floradix lost marks for biodynamic where possible and their lack of reporting or policy in one or organic is for the rest. Because we both of these areas, despite selling only can’t guarantee the availability certified teas. of both we certify it as Hampstead Tea organic only.” Company: * response from suppliers in Egypt

35 Product Herbal tea GUIDE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

Hampstead Tea [F&O] 17 e 2 Hampstead Tea & Coffee Co Clearspring [O] 16 e 1 Clearspring Ltd Hambleden Herbs [O] 16 e 1 Hambleden Herbs Hampstead Tea [O] 16 e 1 Hampstead Tea & Coffee Co Eleven O’Clock [O] 15 1 Tea Times Holding Ltd

Essential [F&O] 15 H h h e 2 Essential Trading Co-operative Steenbergs loose tea [O] 15 1 Steenbergs

The London Tea Co [F] 15 H e 1 Cafédirect Dragonfly, Tick Tock [O] 15 1 Tea Times Holding Ltd Eleven O’Clock [RA] 14.5 0.5 Tea Times Holding Ltd Dragonfly, Tick Tock 14 Tea Times Holding Ltd

Essential [O] 14 H h h e 1 Essential Trading Co-operative Steenbergs 14 Steenbergs Higher Living [O] 13.5 H h 1 Only Natural Products Ltd Thompson’s loose mint [O] 13.5 H h 1 Punjana Ltd Brew Tea 13 H Cafeology Floradix [O] 13 H H 1 Salus-Haus Dr.med GmbH Heath & Heather [O] 13 H H 1 Apeejay Surrendra Group Salus Haus [O] 13 H H 1 Salus-Haus Dr.med GmbH Dr Stuart’s 12.5 H h Only Natural Products Ltd Thompson’s 12.5 H h Punjana Ltd Heath & Heather 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group London Fruit & Herb 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group Ridgways 12 H H Apeejay Surrendra Group

Yogi Tea [O] 12 H h h H H e 1 Sikh Dharma International Clipper [O] 11 h H H h h h 1 Koninklijke Wessanen Redbush rooibos 11 H H H Redbush Tea Co Taylors of Harrogate [O] 10.5 h h H H H h 1 Bettys & Taylors Group Taylors of Harrogate 9.5 h h H H H h Bettys & Taylors Group Tetley [RA] 7.5 H h h h h H H H h h 0.5 Tata Sons Teapigs 7 H h h h h H H H h h Tata Sons Tetley 7 H h h h h H H H h h Tata Sons Pukka [F&O] 4.5 h H HHHHHH h HhHH 2 Unilever Jacksons of Picadilly [F] 3 HhHHHHHHHHh H H 1 Associated British Foods Twinings [O] 3 HhHHHHHHHHh H H 1 Associated British Foods Lipton 2 h H HHHHHHhh HhHH Unilever PG Tips 2 h H HHHHHHhh HhHH Unilever Twinings 2 HhHHHHHHHHh H H Associated British Foods

36 Herbal tea Product JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org GUIDE

m nsu er o .o Companies behind the brands c r l g Our Best Buys for

Clearspring specialises in authentic, traditional artisanal foods. In an interview a

c herbal teas are the i

h just before their 25th anniversary in 2018, the founder stated that in Japan, t double-certified

“We have 40 to 50 producers … Most of them are family businesses ... If I said e Y organic and Fairtrade BE BU tomorrow ... we’ll stop, then 30% of those companies would be bankrupt ... S T teas from Hampstead 3 Artisanal food production is a dying tradition…” Tea and Essential, as Clearspring’s Mu tea is a blend of 11 oriental herbs, produced by a family-run well as Clearspring’s organic company in Vietnam. It always pays above the local average to its workers and for its Mu blend, which has its own story to ingredients. It aims to pay 30% extra to its farmers, and to provide training along with tell. (See the Companies behind the funding. brands, opposite). It grows a lot of ingredients itself and works with a few carefully selected farmers who share similar environmental ethics. Neem plants are grown amongst the tea trees to act as a natural insect repellent. It is also committed to converting as much of its energy supply to renewable sources as possible, and has set up two herbal medicine museums to share the knowledge it has gained. Associated British Foods is a large group of companies including Allied Bakeries, British Sugar, Primark and Fortnum & Mason, as well as Twinings and Jacksons tea. The group lost marks for likely tax avoidance due to having a number of holding companies in tax havens, as well as losing marks for being rated ‘poor’ on Oxfam’s 17 2016 Behind the Brands scorecard, scoring less than 5/10 for its policies on women, farmers, workers, climate change, transparency and water. Fortnum & Mason also sells 15 foie gras. Essential Trading is one of the largest worker co-operatives in the UK and is a wholesaler to wholefood shops. It also appears in our coffee guide as the UK distributor of coffee from the autonomous Zapatista communities in Mexico. It has a number of own-brand products, including organic herbal teas which are all grown, processed and packed on a single organic farm in Egypt. It states on its website 16 that “These teas are grown on reclaimed desert land and sustain the livelihoods of thousands.” Yogi Tea is part of a group of non-profit and for-profit organisations under the oversight of the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC), connected to Sikh Dharma International, a religious organisation. This group includes the East West Tea Company who manage Yogi Tea in the US, and also Akal Security Inc. SSSC appoints candidates to the boards of the various organisations and monitors and assesses the performance of those boards, in order to manage and grow the assets of the organisation.1 Akal Security is one of the largest contract security companies in the United States and provides security for federal government facilities, state and local government agencies RECOMMENDED and military installations. It also works with ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Also recommended are the organic In the wake of the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy, which led herbal teas from Hambleden Herbs, to child separations at the southern US border in the spring of 2018, a petition was set Hampstead Tea, Eleven O’Clock up, calling on Akal to: (rooibos only), Steenbergs (loose ‘Immediately divest from all financial interest in ICE in order to end any profiting or teas), Tick Tock (rooibos only), and appearance of profiting from mass incarceration & detention. We also call on SSSCorp the Fairtrade herbal tea from the and Akal Security to eliminate any business relationships, associations, and contracts London Tea Company. associated with the detention of human beings in the prison-industrial complex, which disproportionately affects communities of color including immigrants and now asylum seekers.’2 BRANDS TO AVOID Akal Security has also been accused of saving “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars by implementing a national policy of using jailed migrants as a source of Companies to avoid are the three at cheap labor. Not convicted criminals, mind you; these were simply ICE detainees”.5 the bottom of the table: Associated It is for these reasons that Yogi Tea lost marks under Arms & Military Supply, Human British Foods (Twinings, Jacksons of Rights and Workers’ Rights. Piccadilly) Unilever (Lipton, PG Tips, Pukka), and Tata (Tetley, Teapigs). For more information see the Companies References: 1 www.ssscorp.org/who-we-serve.html 2 www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/671/532/851/tell-akal- behind the brands opposite and in the security-to-sever-ties-with-ice 3 www.clearspring.co.uk/blogs/news/interview-fighting-for-the-future4 www. sekem.com/en/societal-life/cooperative-of-sekem-employees 5 https://medium.com/@philliptanzer/questions- Tea guide on page 31. about-akal-security-8bcf932bb42d

37 Beyond consumerism JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Making your own herbal teas

Rhona, from the Grass Roots The basic principles of Remedies Co-op in Edinburgh, gives ecological harvesting are: us a guide to why and how to pick and dry plants for tea yourselves. 1. Harvest only plants that you can identify. Why make your own? 2. Pick only where you have permission. It’s an act imbued with ethical principles: 3. Harvest only when the plant is in abundance. by foraging for or cultivating your own 4. Take only 10% of a native plant community and 20% of a naturalised plant herbs to include in your herbal teas you community. can be sure of the origin of the plants. 5. Gather only from clean, vibrant and healthy plants. Some plants incorporated into herbal teas 6. Gather only from unpolluted areas. are harvested from unsustainable sources, using unknown labour and environmental 7. Harvest seasonally: there are specific times in the Earth’s cycles and seasons practices, and over-harvesting of when plants yield the best of their medicine. endangered species. To put these principles into practice it is important to develop a reasonable And of course, it’s cheaper, fresher, botanical knowledge in order that you can reliably identify the plants and and more empowering to make understand their communities. your own.

What to harvest conditions. Spread the herbs out on the drying racks, ensuring they do not overlap. Common wild plants, naturalised plants and some How to drink cultivated plants (which can be easily cultivated in a When you grow and prepare your own dried herbs for tea, small garden space, window they do not then come in a tea bag! So, it is time to splash out boxes or pots) are all used in on an infusion teapot or dedicate a cafetière to brewing teas. If commercially available herbal you prefer your tea one mug at a time, get a tea ball. See more teas. on page 33. Herbal teas, ideally, should be left to brew for eight to ten minutes before drinking; that way you can be sure of In general, the best time to forage foliage from plants is when extracting the useful compounds from the herb. they are just coming up in spring – before flowering and when the leaves are fresh and green.

Herbs to harvest from the wild include: CommuniTea blends Leaves of dandelion, nettle, yarrow, plantain (Plantago major) Digestive mix Calendula, Meadowsweet, Chamomile, Mallow and mallow, wild rose petals, elderflowers, lime flowers (Tilia cordata /T. platyphyllus/T.vulgaris), and both the flowers and Sleep mix Hawthorn, Rose, Lime flowers surrounding leaves of meadowsweet and hawthorn. Relaxation mix Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Lime flowers, Vervain Growing herbs to harvest and dry for tea: Respiratory mix Elderflower, Mallow, Plantain, Sage Mint, sage, chamomile, lemon balm, calendula, hops. You can use your foraged or cultivated herbs fresh and just pop a couple of tablespoons of them in a tea pot but, in order to have wonderful herbal teas all year round, it’s common to dry and store them in airtight containers until you’re ready to blend Grass Roots Remedies is an Edinburgh-based workers co- and drink them. operative whose central philosophy is that herbal medicine is the medicine of the people and should be accessible to How do I dry my herbs? everyone. We offer a series of practical courses and workshops including CommuniTea foraging, run the only fully integrated Herbs can be tied in bunches and dried in a warm dry Community Herbal Clinic in Scotland, operating alongside NHS environment – ideally in the dark (or not in direct sunlight), but provision, and produce simple resources to enable folks to by far the best way, if you want to produce a good quantity, is practice herbalism at home. to buy a herb-drying rack. These are commercially available online. The herbs are ready when they are completely dry to www.grassrootsremedies.co.uk touch, which can take up to four or five weeks, depending on www.facebook.com/Grassrootsremedies

38 Climate ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Extinction Rebellion An estimated 6000 people descended on the capital on Saturday 17th Climate change has been in the November, blocking traffic on five of media spotlight several times over London’s central bridges: Southwark, the past few months thanks partly Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster to the release of the frack-free three and Lambeth. This was followed by a from Preston prison in September,1 symbolic tree-planting ceremony in which was followed by the launch of Parliament Square where three trees ‘Extinction Rebellion’ at the end of – a plum, an a pple and an evergreen October. – were planted whilst a crowd sang a Sufi song called ‘Always in Love’.5 Both stories highlight the increasing Several swarming ‘roadblocks’ took use of non-violent direct action in the UK place in Vauxhall, Tower Bridge, Earl’s in an attempt to mobilise a response to Court and Elephant and Castle, bringing the impending climate emergency and traffic to a standstill. ecological crisis (the recent IPCC report warns that we have around 12 years Many were willingly arrested during to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas these weeks of ‘rebellion’ to highlight emissions to keep warming to 1.5°C). the criminal inaction of the British Government in the face of the ‘climate To tie in with the launch of Extinction

© Francesca E. Harris E. © Francesca emergency’. Future bursts of civil Rebellion, an open letter2 was published disobedience are planned to continue by 94 academics spanning multiple and escalate over the coming years in the face of continued disciplines, endorsing Extinction Rebellion and its key demands: inaction by the government. • To admit the truth about the ecological emergency, reverse For more information visit: rebellion.earth all policies inconsistent with addressing climate change, and work alongside the media to communicate with citizens. • To enact legally binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 and to reduce consumption Cuadrilla’s shaky business levels. 37 earthquake events have been recorded at • To establish a national Citizen’s Assembly to oversee the Cuadrilla’s fracking site at Preston New Road, changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose. Lancashire, just three weeks into commencing The open letter read: “While our academic perspectives and fracking operations. expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we will not Six of the 37 earthquake events exceeded a regulatory tolerate the failure of this or any other government to take robust threshold of 0.5+ magnitude (considered a ‘red’ event), and emergency action in respect of the worsening ecological after which Cuadrilla stopped operations for 18 hours.6 This, crisis. The science is clear, the facts are incontrovertible, and presumably, has a financial implication near to £94,000 per it is unconscionable to us that our children and grandchildren day of delay – an amount previously quoted by the firm’s should have to bear the terrifying brunt of an unprecedented lawyers.7 disaster of our own making ... We are in the midst of the sixth Cuadrilla is also reported to have ‘voluntarily stopped’ mass extinction, with about 200 species becoming extinct each operations after a 0.4 magnitude ‘amber’ event and there are day ... When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility suspicions (from local campaigners) that fracking stopped to protect its citizens from harm and to secure the future for altogether in early November.8 generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The ‘social contract’ has been broken, and it is Stuart Haszeldine, professor of geology at the University therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the of Edinburgh commented that the ‘significance’ of the tremor government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to events is their “potential to damage the borehole, and the rebel to defend life itself.” potential to create gas pathways from the shale towards larger faults, towards shallower aquifers, and to the surface”. At Extinction Rebellion’s launch in London’s Parliament Square a ‘Declaration of Rebellion’ was announced and a letter To keep up-to-date on Lancashire’s frack-free campaign, laying out the movement’s demands was later handed to 10 visit frackfreelancashire.org.uk Downing Street by film-maker brothers Jack and Finn Harries.3 In absence of a response from the government, two weeks of civil disobedience commenced across the UK with the largest References: 1 www.greenpeace.org.uk/press-releases/frack-free-three-freed- emma-thompson-thank-god-courts-seen-sense 2 www.theguardian.com/ demonstrations taking place in London: environment/2018/oct/26/facts-about-our-ecological-crisis-are-incontrovertible- The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy we-must-take-action 3 rebellion.earth/filmmaker-brothers-jack-finn-harries-launch- countdown-to-uk-rebellion-day 4 www.standard.co.uk/news/london/antifracking- (BEIS) was occupied in London – highlighting “the havoc being activists-arrested-after-gluing-themselves-to-governments-energy-headquarters- wrought across the UK by fracking, which the government is a3987986.html 5 rebellion.earth/5pm-update-extinction-rebellion-plants-trees-in- undemocratically supporting.”4 The BEIS is said to have met with parliament-square-more-than-3k-people-present 6 drillordrop.com/2018/11/22/ fracking companies more than 30 times in the last three years, campaigners-demand-answers-to-why-cuadrilla-has-stopped-fracking 7 www. theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/12/anti-fracking-campaigner-loses- compared to zero times with anti-fracking groups – despite legal-bid-to-block-cuadrilla 8 www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/16/ much local opposition and national anti-fracking campaigns. lancashire-fracking-has-stopped-since-small-earthquakes-say-locals

39 Lush Prize 2018 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Is there an end in sight for animal testing?

The Lush Prize awards in 2018 focus on organ-on-a-chip technologies as the ones most likely to replace animals in testing laboratories.

On November 16th, the team behind Biolines’ eye-on- a-chip, from the a new blinking eye-on-a-chip received Lush Prize science the £50,000 Science Prize at the 2018 winner, is composed Lush Prize awards ceremony in Berlin. of human cells and has tear ducts and an Lush Prize is a collaboration between eyelid which blinks. Ethical Consumer and the campaigning cosmetics company Lush. Its goal is to help bring forward the date when no further product-safety testing on animals is required The eye, composed of human cells, has tear ducts and an eyelid which blinks to respond to foreign bodies in the same way that a human or animal eye would. As well as aiding in drug discovery, the eye-on-a- chip may help replace the controversial Draize test for eye irritation which restrains rows of rabbits in stocks in order to administer chemicals to their eyes.

Those keeping an eye on the prize Below: Thirteen Accepting the prize on the night was scientists and three Professor Dan Huh, a bio-engineer who campaigners pose for works at the University of Pennsylvania. the Lush Prize 2018 He explained: “With an increasing body winners’ photo. Dan Huh is on the top of evidence pointing to considerable row at the far right. interspecies differences in fundamental biological processes, animal studies are now raising major scientific, economic, and ethical concerns. My research over the last decade has sought to challenge the animal-based traditional research paradigm and to develop innovative bioengineering.” Rob Harrison, from the Lush Prize, said: “Over the last five years, the Prize has witnessed a huge upsurge of interest in the potential of ‘organs-on-chips’ to replace Other winners animal use in science. Also winning awards at the 2018 Lush Prize were: Professor Huh’s blinking eye-on-a-chip • Mr Nikolas Gaio from the Netherlands, for replacing animal tests with silicon chips. has caught the imagination of our Judges. • Dr Guan-Yu Chen from Taiwan, for a new test for the health effects of particulate The eye, and other human organs-on- matter. chips, provide a clear vision of what a complete replacement technology for • The Brazilian Network for Humane Education, for ending animal use in science animal use in science might look like. We education. think that an end for all animal testing is More information about all 16 winners appears on the Lush Prize website at www. now coming into view.” lushprize.org

40 Boycotts ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Amazon HQ2 sparks protests Community members, politicians and union organisers joined protests in November.2 Demonstrations have taken place in Long Island, Amazon announced that it would be opening a second US US, against tax cuts rewarded to Amazon. The online headquarters in September 2017. Over 230 cities responded retail giant is expected to receive up to $3 billion in to the request for bids. Many of the proposals submitted to the government subsidies in return for opening its second company included large tax incentives – one of several criteria headquarters in the area. that Amazon said it would consider when deciding upon the contenders. Critics say that the company has “duped New York”, and that the 25,000 jobs (which will carry salaries upwards of $100,000) will not benefit local residents, who have an average income of just $15,843, and are unlikely to be eligible for them.3 Speaker for New York City Council, Corey Johnson, criticised the fact that negotiations had excluded local communities, calling the process “extremely troubling”. State and city officials were only told that a deal had been made 18 hours before the official announcement. “New Yorkers have real unmet needs from their government. Our subways are crumbling, our children lack school seats, and too many of our neighbors lack adequate health care. It is unfathomable that we would sign a $3 billion check to Amazon Jimmy Van Bramer speaks out against Amazon subsidies. in the face of these challenges”, Senator Michael Ginaris and Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer said in a joint statement. Politicians and locals have spoken out against the arrangement, which would see Amazon receive around $1.3 billion in Ethical Consumer continues to call for a boycott of Amazon tax breaks as well as other incentives worth $1.5 billion.1 over its tax avoidance practices.

Airbnb to delist properties in Israeli West Bank Settlements Airbnb has announced that it will remove all properties located in Israeli settlements on the Palestinian West Bank from its website. The decision marks a significant victory for the Palestinian-led anti-occupation movement, which has been campaigning against the company for several years. Airbnb had been accused of profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, particularly since 2016, when the UN ruled that Israeli settlements in these areas were a the settlements. Campaigners are now calling on Booking.com “flagrant violation of international law”. Airbnb had previously to follow suit.5 listed the occupied areas of Efrat, Ma’ale Rehavam and Tekoa as In a second campaign victory in November for the Boycott, 4 being in Israel. Divestment and Sanctions movement, the Quakers became the The company announced its decision the day before the first church in the UK to ban investment in companies that profit publication of a damning report by Human Rights Watch from the “military occupation of Palestinian territories by the highlighting the negative impact of Airbnb and Booking.com in Israeli government”.6

Nestlé baby milk whistleblower to doctors in return for their support. The World Health Organisation has recognised such practices as placing babies at film to be shown in the UK serious risk of disease and malnutrition since the 1980s. Tigers tells the story of Syed Aamir Raza, a former Nestlé Tigers received a standing ovation when it was premiered at salesman, who exposed the company’s aggressive baby the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014 and was given a Solidarity Award at its European Premier at the San Sebastian milk marketing practices in Pakistan. Film Festival. In 1999, Raza published a report with IBFAN titled ‘Milking It is now available to watch in the UK to subscribers of the Profits: How Nestlé Puts Sales Ahead of Infant Health’. It Zee5 Global Platform, and in a limited number of cinemas. revealed how the company was continuing to push the use of Baby Milk Action has also asked anyone interested in organising baby milk formula over breast feeding, including by paying a screening to get in contact. www.babymilkaction.org/tigers bribes of products, equipment and financial inducements

References: 1 www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/15/18096181/long-island-city-amazon-hq2-protest 3 www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/nyregion/amazon-queens- queensbridge-houses 4 www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/12/airbnb-listings-illegal-settlements-israel-palestine-west-bank 5 www.theguardian.com/ technology/2018/nov/19/airbnb-removes-rentals-in-israeli-west-bank-settlements 6 www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jews-denounce-quakers-over-israel-investment-ban- f8p9cm6wf

41 Tax justice JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org

Digital Services Tax In the October Budget, the Chancellor announced the introduction of a new ‘digital services tax’ (DST) intended to increase the amount of tax paid by technology giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google. Specifically, it is a 2% tax on the sales that these companies make in the UK, which the Treasury forecasts will generate £275 million in 2019-20, rising to £370 million in 2021. The DST is being touted as the government’s way of taking on the big tax avoiders. Oxfam’s tax havens stunt outside the EU offices in Brussels promoting But it isn’t, not really. Corporation tax is a tax on a company’s Oxfam’s 2017 report ‘Blacklist or Whitewash?’ which shows what a profits. Multinationals avoid it by shifting their profits to places robust list of tax havens should look like. where the tax rate is lower. But rather than properly resourcing and empowering HMRC to take on the big tech tax avoiders, EU secrecy index is meaningless the Chancellor is attempting to claw back the shortfall in these companies’ corporation tax receipts by taxing their sales, i.e. While we’re on the topic of toothless initiatives, new before any profit-shifting can take place. research from the Tax Justice Network (TJN) has revealed that the countries on the EU’s blacklist of tax havens (as of May this year) were responsible for just 1% of the financial secrecy services facing EU member states. Worse still, the list failed to include any of the top 10 suppliers of financial secrecy services to the EU, such as shell companies and banking secrecy laws which enable money laundering, corruption, tax abuse and the financing of terrorism.3 The blacklist currently includes: American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands. (Palau was on the list at the time of TJN’s research but was moved to the ‘grey list’ at the end of October.)4 According to TJN, four of the top 10 suppliers of financial secrecy services to the EU are themselves EU member states: Netherlands (4%), Luxembourg (3.8%), Germany (3.3%) and France (2.3%). None of these countries are on the blacklist, or even the grey list. A bigger absence, however, is the United States. The US supplies 4.7% of financial secrecy to EU member states, which is five times the amount supplied by all of the blacklisted countries Toby Quantrill, the Economic Justice Lead at Christian Aid, put together. The problem here is compounded by the fact that was underwhelmed by the DST proposal: not a single EU member state has secured a sufficiently reciprocal “The Treasury expects an income of only £400 million, which automatic exchange of information treaty with the US. is tiny compared to the £50 billion in profits these companies Automatic exchange of information treaties are make. In reality, this is tantamount to an admission that these countermeasures against financial secrecy that work alongside companies are too powerful to tax effectively … If the UK, the tax haven blacklist. These treaties enable tax authorities to as the 6th largest economy, can’t impose a credible tax that automatically retrieve information on the banking activities satisfies public expectations about paying what you owe, what that their residents’ carry out in other tax jurisdictions, helping hope do developing countries’ governments have?”1 authorities peer through the fog of financial secrecy and detect Richard Murphy described it as “gesture politics and a missed illicit financial flows heading out of their jurisdictions. The opportunity.” He also pointed out that enforcement of the tax absence of any treaty with the US makes them the EU’s greatest was likely to be difficult since it required knowledge of each enabler of tax abuse, corruption, money-laundering and the company’s UK income, something which is not a statutory financing of terrorism. accounting measure or available in public accounts.2 Markus Meinzer, a director at the Tax Justice Network, said: A consultation on the design and implementation of the “The EU has recently taken important steps to tackle financial DST is running until 28 February 2019 with the DST due to be secrecy, but it is hard to call the EU’s tax haven blacklist an introduced in April 2020. effective firewall against economic threats when it fails to detect 99% of the financial secrecy threatening EU member states.”

References: 1 https://mediacentre.christianaid.org.uk/christian-aid-responds-to- budget-announcement-of-tech-giant-tax 2 https://www.politicshome.com/news/ This is an edited version of the TJN blog ‘EU tax haven blacklist uk/economy/taxation/news/99570/experts-warn-tech-giants-could-duck-philip- hammonds-new-gesture 3 www.taxjustice.net 4 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_ blocks just 1% of financial secrecy services threatening EU customs/sites/taxation/files/eu_list_update_25_05_2018_en.pdf economies’, September 23, 2018 from www.taxjustice.net

42 Money Save our bank ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Carbon divested funds: financial performance

5 year cumulative Ethiscore Carbon divested fund performance to as of June 27/11/2018 2018 Shaun Fensom and Ryan Brightwell Janus Henderson Global 67.0 6 Sustainable Equity Fund report on the latest news from the WHEB Sustainability 65.7 16 Sarasin Sustainable Equity Real Customer Union for Ethical Banking. Estate 60.8 7.5 Triodos Sustainable Pioneer 48.0 15.5

Jupiter Ecology 7.6 6.5 Modus co-operandi Aviva Liontrust Sustainable Future It’s over a year now since the Co-operative Bank European Growth 29.0 7 completed its financial restructuring – portrayed in some news media as a ‘rescue’. The bank’s private shareholders Castlefield BEST Sustainable 17.4 15 Income Fund injected some £700m to put the bank on a more secure Quilter Cheviot Climate Assets Data unavailable 4 footing and ensure its continuing independence. Standard Life Equity Impact n/a (fund is less In the first 9 months of 2018 the bank even managed to turn 3.5 Global than 5 years old) a small operating profit. After restructuring costs this became IA Global (for comparison) 52.8 a (smallish) loss, but it’s clear that the bank is at last waking from the nightmare that began in 2013. And under its new chief Data from trustnet.com executive, Andrew Bester, the conversation in the bank has moved on from how to survive, to how to grow. So, when the Customer Union for Ethical Banking (aka Save Our Bank campaign) held its annual gathering in Manchester in November, the bank’s director of communications, Lesley Abundance launches wind farm McPherson, was able to focus her talk on the bank’s growth investment opportunity plans for the future. Under its new chief executive, Andrew Bester, the conversation in the bank has moved on from For the first time in two years, the investment how to survive, to how to grow. Lesley told Customer Union platform Abundance is providing an opportunity to members that the core strategy is to mark itself out from other, invest in wind power. much bigger banks with a distinctive proposition on ethics, Abundance is a peer-to-peer ethical investment platform. cooperative values and using digital to extend real customer It links small-scale investors and ethical projects, and allows engagement. people to invest as little as £5. Members then discussed next steps to achieve the Customer The wind energy project in question is run by Arena Union’s twin aims: holding the bank to account on its ethics and Capital Partners, a Dublin-based renewable energy returning it to some form of cooperative ownership and control. developer which has more than 70 turbines in the UK and The campaign has arguably had some success in the first aim. Italy. The funds raised will be used to help Arena develop On issues like the form of the ethical policy and the row over new renewable energy projects. account closures for campaigning organisations, the union has It is a low-risk investment as it is backed by Arena’s shown that it has the ear of the bank. existing portfolio of wind turbines located on farms across The bank has a business strategy that relies not only on the north of England, and the electricity they generate is claiming to be ethical, but backing that up with actions and supported by the government’s feed-in tariff, which gives credible reporting. Here the Customer Union can help: through a guaranteed price. Over £1.3 million of the £2.9 million independent validation and also by signalling problems, as it targethas already been raised. did with the account closures. Jane Lewis from Unite, which The project is expected to yield a 5% annual internal rate represents 65% of the bank’s staff, told the meeting how it’s of return over its 16-year lifespan. actually in the bank’s interest for most employees to belong to a Bruce Davis, co-founder and managing director of union because it means problems get fixed before they get out Abundance said: “we’re delighted to bring our customers a of hand. There’s now an opportunity for the Customer Union wind energy investment. These are becoming increasingly to explore this role from the customer side. Forward-thinking rare for ordinary investors, with new development stymied employers understand the benefits that a union-organised by out-of-touch government policies.” workforce can bring a business. But how many can also point to independent union representation for their customers? For more information see www.abundanceinvestment. com/investments/e2-energy For more information and to join the Customer Union, visit https://saveourbank.coop

43 Feature JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Baladi Rooted Resistance in Palestine

Sandra Guimarães Food under occupation a greater political and economic system in the world that is causing us to be slaves to from Baladi – Rooted Decades of ongoing military occupation agri-business companies, to multinationals and settler colonialism in Palestine that want to dump their terrible food on Resistance in Palestine have had a devastating impact on food us”, says Vivien Sansour when we meet at sustainability and sovereignty. Israeli her Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library in – describes the effect of military zones, illegal settlements and the Beit Sahour, Bethlehem. “Israeli agri- Israeli Wall are all stealing land and water business has managed to sell the myth that the Israeli occupation resources from the indigenous population. agri-business all over the world is selling, Add to this the restrictions on freedom that we need them and we need their seeds on Palestinian food of movement and regular attacks on for more production. […] Now you are farmers and crops by settlers and you can not a producer, you’re a consumer. see how combined Israeli restrictions on And what better way to enslave production and agriculture have led the UN to consider someone than make them your consumer.” 31.5% of the population to be food Our project, Baladi - Rooted Resistance positive food initiatives insecure. in Palestine, is an ongoing multi-media The occupation is not only changing exploration of initiatives to regain food springing up in the the map, it’s changing traditional autonomy in a country where everyday life agricultural practices, pushing Palestinian is itself resistance to the occupation. area. farmers into monoculture, with associated Sansour’s Seed Library is one of these heavy use of chemicals and commercial initiatives, saving native seeds from hybrid seeds, as they try to produce more extinction and working with Palestinian food on less land. farmers to preserve biodiversity and regain their autonomy. Fighting the agri- This independence is crucial in a land where the markets are flooded with cheap business model produce grown in Israel or on West Bank “Today, it’s not just the military occupation settlements while at the same time it is that we live under in Palestine, but it’s also made increasingly difficult for Palestinian’s to grown their own food.

The Israeli Wall separates the Aida Refugee Camp from recreational and agricultural land.

44 Feature ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Draguitsa Alafandi attends to her rooftop garden where she plants fruits and vegetables in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem. All photos © Anne Paq & Craig Redmond / Baladi - Rooted Resistance / Baladi - Rooted & Craig Redmond Anne Paq All photos ©

A Palestinian family The BDS movement picking olives in the West Bank village It is under these conditions that, inspired of Burin. Villagers by the South African anti-apartheid of Burin have faced movement, Palestinian civil society many attacks by organisations in 2005 called for boycott, Israeli settlers living nearby, especially divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a during the olive form of non-violent pressure on Israel harvest season. until it complies with international law by meeting three demands: ending the occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands and dismantling the wall, recognising the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality and respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194. Endorsing the BDS movement is one of the most important ways that Palestinians have asked international citizens to support their resistance to the occupation and struggle for self-determination. children enjoy picking herbs, leaves or at them and see how they are growing”, tomatoes. Draguitsa says as we sit on her roof eating The garden on the roof There are still worries of course: loquats fresh from the tree that grows “let’s not forget this is a refugee camp between the buildings. Meanwhile, in the crowded Dheisheh in Palestine. There are Israeli soldiers Refugee Camp we find a little oasis shooting almost every night here. Teargas amongst the concrete and noise where bombs are flying everywhere. Our rooftop Baladi – Rooted Resistance is an Draguitsa Alafandi is growing vegetables is quite high but I’m always afraid they ongoing multi-media project by writer on her rooftop to serve fresh food to her would tear down the greenhouse. It would and vegan chef Sandra Guimarães and family. 15,000 people live in the camp, be a disaster.” photojournalists Anne Paq and Craig built in 1949 to house 3,000 refugees. “In Deheisheh I feel cut from Redmond. Growing food on her rooftop changed everything. But having some plants to For more information about agro-resistance the way Draguitsa’s family eats, she told take care of, it’s really nice. And having in Palestine, visit the website us. “It became fresher. Now we have much something to put on the table it’s a big www.baladirootedresistance.com or more salads and soups.” Even her young bonus. It’s very therapeutic just to look Facebook page ‘Baladi Rooted Resistance’.

45 The UK ethical market JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Government measures slow green spending Clare Carlile looks at the reasons behind the slow down revealed in our 2018 Ethical Consumer Markets Report.

Government changes to taxation and growing environmental concern. Over that government measures can have on subsidies have caused the collapse of a quarter of those who responded to ethical spending. The solar panel market two key green markets, according to our YouGov survey stated that they had boomed after the government introduced the 2018 Ethical Consumer Markets avoided buying a product or using a Feed-In Tariffs in 2010, before declining Report. Falling sales for solar panels service due to its negative environmental when they were curtailed in 2012, 2 and energy efficient cars accounted impact in the past year – an increase of prior to being cut last year. Similarly, for the slow growth seen by the 51% since 2016. steady growth in energy-efficient boilers ethical market overall which, at Yet, this drive for green options was and household appliances has been +2.5%, was outstripped by inflation. offset by the removal of government backed by government legislation setting support for green spending. Sales of solar efficiency standards. Ethical Consumer has been producing panels fell by 87.4% in 2017 after the Indeed, since the EU began its phase its Markets Report annually since 1999. government reduced support for at-home out of halogen lightbulbs in 2016, sales The report acts as a key barometer for solar energy generation. The market for of more energy-efficient options have ethical spending in the UK, and tracks energy efficient cars also fell by 28.4%, increased significantly. The energy- sales across a wide range of sectors following changes to road taxation. efficient lightbulb market grew 42.9% in from ethically certified food and drink 2016 and 23.8% in 2017, as more and to green energy providers. Since 2005, In 2016, the government cut incentives more consumers turned to LED bulbs, Ethical Consumer has also commissioned for solar panels known as Feed-in Tariffs ahead of the 2018 EU Ban.3 a YouGov opinion survey about ethical (FITs) by 65% and, in 2017, it ended consumer behaviour, in conjunction with subsidies for solar thermal schemes.1 The 2018 Markets Report, therefore, the report. The market has been declining ever shows that government legislation has the since and, in 2017, it was less than a power to control green markets at a time Green concerns grow quarter of its 2010 size, when FITs were when the cost of unsustainable purchases first introduced. As of April 2017, the is increasingly known. The 2018 report shows that, in many government also changed its rules on sectors, consumers are turning towards road taxation. The new rules leave buyers more sustainable options as their concern of fuel-efficient cars £140 worse off after Free copies of the full report can be for the environment grows. Green energy the first year than under the previous downloaded from our website at: grew 56.3% in 2017. Ethical clothing regulations. Sales of alternative fuel www.ethicalconsumer.org/research- increased by 19.9% and buying second- vehicles continued to grow. (Pure Electric hub/uk-ethical-consumer-markets- hand clothing for environment reasons Vehicles are not affected by the changes report increased by 22.5%, in a year which in regulation.) contained much media reporting about the environmental impacts of fast fashion. What’s the impact? Ethical Food and Drink was also up References: 1 https://www.theguardian.com/ 16.3%, the largest increase since 2012, The impact of such changes on the environment/2016/apr/08/solar-installation-in-british- fuelled by growing sales of vegetarian market as a whole are apparent. If the homes-falls-by-three-quarters-after-subsidy-cuts; https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/solar- products. The strength of such spending decline in solar panel sales and energy- power-crisis-tory-government-new-installations-drop- is remarkable since UK retail sales fell efficient cars is excluded, growth in 80-per-cent-conservatives-solar-trade-a7682501.html in 2017 for the first time since 2013 and ethical spending looks healthy at 5.5%. 2 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/ aug/01/solar-panel-feed-in-tariff-cut 3 https://www. have continued to decline ever since. Over the years, the Markets Report has theguardian.com/money/2018/aug/11/switch-led- Our YouGov survey also exposed repeatedly shown the significant impact light-bulbs-halogen-ban

Ethical spending in the UK, 2000-2017

46 Thinker ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 CAN ethical advertising policies save the world?

Rob Harrison introduces a new project designed to draw ethical boundaries around the world of online advertising.

Something has gone wrong with the Internet. Where A classic example once we were delighted with the opportunity for of an advert next to content that the free expression and a diversity of voices, we are now advertiser may not surrounded by fake news, hate speech and micro- necessarily agree with. targeting of prejudices globally. Tim Berners Lee, often hailed as the founder of the World Wide Web, has gone into all future agency briefs and RFPs (requests for proposals). on record to say: “The system is failing. The way ad In other words, they are creating emerging standards for ‘ethical revenue works with clickbait is not fulfilling the goal of advertising policies’. helping humanity promote truth and democracy. So I am The manifesto covers six themes: – 1 concerned.” • Hate Speech, Jake Dubbins, one of the founders of a new group called • Fake News, the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN), explained to Ethical • Children’s Wellbeing, Consumer: “Much online content is free. And it is therefore possible to say that it is the advertising industry which is largely • Ad Fraud, funding the internet. Now that people are becoming concerned • Consent/Privacy, about problem content, it is becoming clear to advertisers that • Diversity in Content. they need to take action.” These advertising policies will, in turn, put pressure on In February this year, for example, Unilever went on record digital advertising agencies to take greater care on where their to say that it would pull its ads from online networks, such as programmatically delivered ads appear. Facebook and YouTube, if the companies did not minimise Despite the fact that CAN was germinated at an Ethical divisive content on their platforms. Unilever’s chief marketing Consumer conference in 2017 (see editorial on page 3), and it officer, Keith Weed, said “Fake news, racism, sexism, terrorists has received no funding, has no government involvement, and spreading messages of hate, toxic content directed at children has been entirely produced by volunteers from across the whole – parts of the internet we have ended up with are a million miles advertising ecosystem, it has attracted interest from a wide range from where we thought it would take us.” In 2017, Unilever of high-profile players. spent an estimated $2.4 billion on digital advertising.2 CAN are actively looking for companies to sign up so, if you Stop Funding Hate are interested, visit their website at www.consciousadnetwork.org As you may know from previous issues of this magazine, Ethical Consumer has been working occasionally with the UK Some participants in CAN: campaign group Stop Funding Hate. Simon Birch writes on • The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) are page 50 about the success of Stop Funding Hate’s campaign to officially supporting CAN and all its manifestos. address hate speech in print media – specifically the Sun, the • The Hate Speech manifesto has been signed by Stop Hate Mail and the Express. UK; Leicester University Centre for Hate Studies; Stop Stop Funding Hate has become increasingly aware that Funding Hate; Spectra; Friends, Families and Travellers; much of the overt hate speech we observe is moving away from Faith Matters; and Tell MAMA. mainstream or traditional media and onto the internet, and has • The Guardian and Google have helped shape the Fake therefore been working with a spin-off project that is designed News workstream. to create pressure on advertising agencies to avoid sites where this kind of speech is occurring. • Consent was written by Kantar TNS (WPP), Citizen Me, Good Loop and CAN co-Chair Harriet Kingaby. The new project is called the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN), and it is garnering increasingly mainstream support. • JICWEBS, representing ISBA, IPA, IAB and AOP have It launched in the last week of November 2018 with three written the Ad Fraud manifesto. companies already signed up: The Body Shop, Diageo and • Children’s Wellbeing was put together by Hopscotch Ecover/Method. Consulting, The Drum, and others. CAN is looking for more companies to sign up. Those who • Diversity in Content was led by Ali Hanan, founder of do sign up promise to incorporate the principles of its manifesto Creative Equals.

References: 1 www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/15/tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web-net-neutrality 2 www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/ wp/2018/02/12/one-of-the-worlds-largest-advertisers-threatens-to-pull-its-ads-from-facebook-and-google-over-toxic-content

47 Christmas gift subscriptions JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 www.ethicalconsumer.org It’s not too late to give a gift subscription

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48 Letters ethicalconsumer.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

£4.25 EC175 Nov/Dec 2018 www.ethicalconsumer.org Dirty fossil fuels but its carbon footprint is high. As stuff, will. Once the initial euphoria Like many Ethical Consumer with other human activities, do of seeing your consumption on the readers, I try to minimise my people care about their carbon kitchen wall has passed, organising use of fossil fuels, but I do footprint? your life round the display will lose drive when necessary. Take air quality and pollution of its attraction. I appreciate that not all the seas. Don’t be fooled – the real long-term fossil fuels are the same. Southampton is one of the cities reason for making us pay the £20 You’ve highlighted the in the UK with an air quality billion it’s cost to purchase & fit environmental issues with problem. BBC South Today did a them (buried in our current bills) is TAX AVOIDER oil from Canadian tar report on it, perhaps six months to finally end fixed tariffs and charge sands, but I’m concerned ago. Part of Southampton’s problem whatever rate the meter is displaying How to avoid Amazon about oil from repressive in that cruise liners use generators second by second – the ‘spot’ Amazon Alternatives to: Book Retailers, Tablets & E-readers, Streaming Services and Online Ethical Retailers middle eastern (and to keep all their systems going price. Why? So that the suppliers Plus: What’s wrong with online shopping? other) regimes. The while in port, and up to seven can can pass on the instantaneous spot Saudi government’s track be berthed there at a time. These price (+profit) to consumers so they record is especially gruesome, from generators are powered by diesel have no risk in purchasing power abuse of women’s rights, to the war engines which emit pollutants. contracts in advance of demand in Yemen, to the recent apparent Some European countries have a – corporations win again!! murder of a journalist in their cleaner system of electric plugs G.D. Johnston, by email Turkish embassy. and sockets for cruise ships. Saudi Arabia is not unique in the Where does the ‘black water’ go Support for Ethical Consumer’s region, several other governments from cruise ships? I presume ships dairy boycott also have appalling human rights are fitted with massive holding I was very pleased to hear about records. tanks. Is the effluent treated before your dairy boycott. The badger is So, whilst I support us moving away it is discharged to sea, and how? being used as the scapegoat. We from fossil fuels as fast as possible, What are the rules on distance lost our small herd some years ago. I’d really welcome an Ethical from land and discharge rates? The TB test is unreliable, but cattle Consumer investigation into how How do they deal with their plastic are still slaughtered if they fail the we can avoid oil from regimes with and other rubbish? test. Ours had no sign of TB when repressive human rights records Can we have an ethical table on slaughtered. whilst we make that transition. cruise line operators and cruise We have campaigned, without Mark, by email ships please? Being able to choose success, for cattle vaccination but the most ethical operators would whilst the badger remains the target Cruising towards environmental be a great leap forward. no progress will be made in this destruction Norman Pasley, by email area. With the cull now extended to most of the UK are we going to Cruising in massive cruise ships is see badgers wiped out from the booming in Britain. But how ethical ‘Smart meters’ – don’t get UK? In frustration I gave up dairy is it? fooled again over a year ago. I don’t miss it and People are being duped into I know of people who do two there was an added benefit – I feel believing that smart meters will or three cruises a year and so much healthier as the stomach somehow save them money – they think nothing of flying to the problems I used to have have won’t. Only their own actions, Mediterranean or across the Atlantic disappeared! to join a ship that may have 6,000 either switching things off or Sally Hall, by email people on board. Cruising is fun, replacing kit with more efficient

49 Inside View JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Beating the tabloid bullies How is the campaign against bigotry and racism in the media going? Simon Birch finds out. Stop Funding Hate has helped to make hate-filled headlines, like these, a thing of the past. © stopfundinghate.org.uk

he groundbreaking Stop Funding “In 2016, there were over 70 front pages Just how threatening the papers found Hate campaign was launched back featuring migrants, the majority of which it is suggested by the massive onslaught of in the summer of 2016. were negative, whilst this year there have negative publicity which all three tabloids TIts aim was to tackle the appallingly been just three and none since the new hurled at the campaign last December, racist headlines directed at Muslims and editor began,” says Wilson. something which even included an attack refugees which were appearing in the “There’s been a massive change in the from Boris Johnson in The Sun. tabloid press on a depressingly regular way they report, particularly on migrants, “The problem for the tabloids was that basis. which was a core issue of our campaign.” by attacking us they proved that we were “The campaign’s core focus was on the In fact, there’s been such a dramatic actually having a significant impact because Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Sun, turnaround at the Express regarding the they weren’t ignoring us,” says Wilson. as there was widespread concern that the way that it reports on migrants and other “Ultimately the attacks backfired and hate in our media was fuelling hate on our minorities that Stop Funding Hate is were a big boost for us as more people began streets,” explains Richard Wilson one of now not actively targeting the paper, but donating money to us. Being attacked by the the campaign’s founders. instead has placed it ‘under review’. Daily Mail showed that the campaign was The group’s key tactic was simple: There’s also been progress with the working.” by persuading companies to pull their Daily Mail, which itself has a new editor advertising from the likes of The Sun, who has been given the job of ‘detoxifying The next stage the campaign wanted to put the financial the Mail’ after the departure of its previous controversial editor Paul Dacre. Having achieved a large part of their initial squeeze on the tabloids’ bottom-line, objective, Wilson and his team are now something that had never been attempted “There’s been a marked change of tone with the Mail’s reporting and we’ve heard looking at the next stage of the campaign. before. “Our new goal is to get the principle “Our aim was to persuade these from industry insiders that our campaign is a headache to them,” says Wilson. that companies shouldn’t advertise with newspapers that it no longer made good media organisations peddling hate speech business sense to use anti-Muslim and And, amazingly, The Sun has publicly apologised for one of its most notorious recognised as a global business ethical anti-migrant rhetoric on their front pages columnists who, in the past, likened issue, just like any other corporate social as a way of selling their newspapers,” migrants to cockroaches, and is now responsibility issue,” says Wilson. explains Wilson. engaging with Muslim and transgender Significantly this goal has just had a Incredible success with all three groups over how The Sun reports on these major endorsement from the UN which has recently adopted this approach to ethical papers issues. The result is that The Sun has now advertising as a way of tackling racism. Just over two years on, the welcome significantly toned down its attack-dog “The commitment from the UN will set good news is that the campaign has headlines that were a regular feature in the a precedent for businesses and is another been a whopping success with a marked past. major step towards a world where media reduction in the number of extreme racist hate is no longer profitable,” concludes stories being published by the tabloids. Defensiveness from the papers Wilson. The biggest change has been from the By persuading sufficient numbers of Daily Express which has had a change of companies to pull their advertising, the Stop Funding Hate are now crowd-funding ownership this spring and, with it, a new campaign has been effective in hitting the for the next stage of their campaign. For more editor. tabloids’ financial bottom-line. information visit: https://stopfundinghate.info

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I hope you enjoyed meeting me! Thank you. Sasha x

The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) is looking for special someones to sponsor the brighter futures of blind children and children with sight loss like Sasha. By sponsoring them with £10 a month, you’d help provide the extra help every blind child needs to learn and succeed. Thank you. Please text SPONSOR to 70577

Keeping in touch: We’d like to keep you up Will you sponsor a brighter future for blind children? to date with the work we do and show you how you are helping to transform lives. I wish to sponsor a brighter future with £10 a month 8 3 8 5 0 2 Yes it is OK to contact me by telephone Your tel: I wish to sponsor a brighter future with £ Name[s) of Account Holder(s): Account No: Sort Code: -- Yes it is OK to contact me by SMS Your mobile: Name Detail of your Bank/Building Society: Name

Address Address Postcode Yes it is OK to contact me by email Instruction to your Bank or Building Society: Please pay Royal Society for Blind Children Your email: (RSBC) Direct Debits, from the account detailed in this instruction subject to the safeguards Make your gift worth 25% more at no cost to you assured by the Direct Debit Guarantee. I understand that this instruction may remain with with Gift Aid. RSBC and details will be passed electronically to my Bank/Building Society If you would like to discuss or change Yes, I want to Gift Aid this donation and any donations I make in the future or have your contact preferences, please contact made in the past 4 years to RSBC. I am a UK Taxpayer and understand that if I pay Signature Date DMYDMY us at [email protected] or call less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of GiftAid claimed on all 0203 198 0225 my donations in that tax year it is my responsibility to pay any difference. Gift Aid is Please return this form in a stamped addressed envelope. reclaimed by us from the tax you pay for the current tax year. Your address is needed Our address is: Freepost Plus RTUR–THHH–XJRE RSBC 52-58 Arcola Street London E8 2DJ to identify you as a current UK taxpayer. You can also donate online at: rsbc.org.uk OR by calling 020 3198 0225

Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) Registered Office: 52-58 Arcola Street, London E8 2DJ. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (139928) and a charity Registered charity No. 307892