Transforming the tea sector - it’s a marathon effort.
At Transform Trade we love it when people are able to put the ‘fun’ in fundraising. Whether that’s sipping a cup of tea in a cathedral, dressing as a banana at a Big Brew, or trekking across northern Spain, there is really is something for everyone. We’re constantly inspired by brilliant people like you who want to build a world where everyone gets a fair deal from the trade system.
Michael Taggart, who runs a tea company, has taken on something truly incredible - he’s running a marathon in Lisbon in aid of our work. He shares his story, and his passion for a better tea sector, below:
Why I'm running a marathon to help transform the tea trade
"A cup of tea never did anyone any harm, did it?"
That was the heart-warming theory espoused during a Zoom call by a colleague in sales, as we exchanged ideas for marketing straplines for the tea company I run with my wife, Helen.
The slogan also hinted at the benevolence of this healthiest of drinks, beloved of the British for centuries, I thought, as the idea brewed and began to give off the sweet aroma of promise. Tea has been piping anti-oxidants, brain-boosting enzymes and a menu of useful minerals into the nation's collective bloodstream since we started drinking it nearly 400 years ago – so why not go big on this in our messaging?
Often big ideas are essentially rubbish when you think about them for a bit and this one did not buck that trend. It occurred to me pretty quickly that our proposed corporate catchphrase failed a fundamental test – it was simply not true.
Sure, little or no harm had ever come from drinking tea (aside from a few poisonings and accidents with hot water throughout the ages). But how about harm to the makers – the growers, pickers and packagers?
The answer was that there has always been a dark side to global tea production, which has caused significant harm to workers all over the world.
An eye-opening afternoon
Troubled by my own lack of attention to this discomforting issue, I dived straight from the Zoom call into Google rabbit hole, ending up on the website of the Transform Trade, the charity supporting fair trade globally. I discovered that:
The average tea worker earns 2p for every box of 80 tea bags sold for £2 in UK supermarkets.
Nine out of 10 hospital patients from tea plantations in India are malnourished.
There have even been reports of sexual exploitation on tea farms that supply some of the UK's most popular brands.
I was appalled but, I had to admit, not surprised. I had known of these stories for a while and had always felt that keeping our own backyard clean was enough to assuage my uneasiness about this underbelly of our business. But it was not enough. We all need to tackle abuse in our industries as well as treat people well. So, with that thought, I resolved to support an organisation that is already knee-deep in this work.
Transforming lives in the global tea industry
Transform Trade works alongside communities working in the tea sector helping them to demand change and develop other sources of income. It also supports smallholder tea growers to adapt to climate change, sell their produce for a fair price, and improve their working conditions.
The work that Transform Trade does, I'm sure you'll agree, is work that we can all get behind.
So what am I doing to help?
My small part in Transform Trade’s mission will be to run the Lisbon Marathon on October 6th in aid of the charity. Look, this isn't totally unselfish – I need a long weekend somewhere hot and I like to run. But if you're going to run 26.2 miles in aid of any cause, this is one that tea drinkers should definitely support. It is an industry that is giving me and millions of others a good living and a good life and we need to try to make it better.
So if you can spare a few quid, please support the work Transform Trade does by sponsoring me at my JustGiving page. And in return, I promise to "Get A Round" the course. Now, there's an idea for a tea slogan – anyone know if it's been done?.
We’re definitely not saying you need to dust off your trainers but if this has got you thinking about how you could fundraise, check out our community pages or email us at fundraising@transform-trade.org