Caroline Hahn
April 8, 2015
ANT 302
Ece Saltan
Tea Production:
The Ethics of Labor Organization in Assam and the Tea-Producing World
Americans, and the rest of the Western world, for that matter, often eat and drink—and really, perform daily activities—without thinking about where their products come from. Hundreds of millions of Americans drink a beverage every morning, but there is a certain tendency to overlook why and how the tea or coffee got in their cup. It is common for those who live in affluent countries to just buy what they think is a good brand—a name brand, like Twining’s, for example—because the has a long history of producing quality tea, and if it is available, why not drink quality tea? The problem with this sort of senseless consumerism is that often these companies, especially companies as big and popular as Twining’s, care more about profit than anything else. Twining’s ethical situation should be called into question because it buys tea from ethically questionable sources; their website and informational sources provide a different story than human rights reports, and while the environmental factors of their tea production are an issue, the social ramifications of their tea production are far greater.
Most of Twining’s Tea is produced in countries like India, China, Kenya, and Sri Lanka on large estates. On average, 13 million workers are involved in tea production worldwide (Groosman, 2012: 2) The tea is then processed in processing plants either on
Recently people have become more and more conscious of what they put into their bodies and where it comes from. An unprecedented amount of information is now readily available to most Americans with the advent of the Internet. This has resulted in a great increase in transparency of the many aspects of imported products. Consequently, programs have been established to help ensure that these products are produced in more ethical and humane ways. To many Americans, the Fair Trade labeled bags of coffee they purchase that give them the energy they need to go about their day in addition to being a socially conscious decision but to many it is a means for survival and an escape from a cycle of debt that traps many similar non-Fair Trade growers generation after generation
1. Discuss the similarities and differences between at least three labor organizations discussed in Chapter 3.
- First in its market to brew its tea from tea leaves as opposed to artificial powders.
With these values in place makes sure that each person working within our organization models these characteristics. It helps establish priorities in daily work life and personal life and can help our organization grow. Effective organizations identify and develop a clear, concise and shared meaning of values/beliefs, priorities, and direction so that every employee understands and can
Starbucks has a long-standing effort in ethical conduct and global responsibility. One of the major efforts is sourcing ethically grown coffee. For
Bryant Simon’s novel, Everything but the Coffee, sought to expose the exploitations of the famous coffee company, Starbucks, by unveiling the corporation true 's intention on selling its over-priced coffee laced with disguises of false lies and advertisement. In the selected passage, Simon describes Starbucks as a typical corporate business, and that the company advertises to sell its product through false claims. Ethical consumption means that the consumers “use their buying power to affect political outcomes or raise political consciousness” (203). In other words, consumers use money to buy products from companies to spread awareness, or provide a solution to it. Simon states that Starbucks changes its image and portrays itself as the
Royalty House respects and fosters loving, family centered values. Royalty House believes that every individual deserves a chance at new beginnings and the opportunity to obtain the necessary tools to become self-reliant and self-sufficient in adulthood. The NASW Code of Ethics principal states: that social workers’ primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems. Social workers elevate service to others above self-interest. Social workers draw on personal knowledge, values and skills to address social problems and help people in need. Social workers are encouraged to volunteer some portion of professional skills with no expectation of significant financial return (pro bono service), (Manning, 2003, p. 283).
Fair Trade has been a buzz word in the world lately with the movement towards human rights. It’s important to note that technoscapes and ethnoscapes have played big factors in this movement and spread of ethical goods. Global consumption of coffee in the past two years has been lead in this order from Europe, Asia and Oceania, North America, South America, Africa, and Central America and Mexico (“Trade Statistics Table”, 2017). A big reason why fair trade has spread globally is because of ethnoscapes, the movement of culture and people across borders. When people travel to different areas in the coffee belt, they used to see the abuse of human labor, poor working conditions, child workers, and that these farmers were not able to make much money
As a worldwide leader in coffee and coffeehouse chains, Starbucks has been faced with both scrutiny and praise for their practices in regards to community engagement and corporate social responsibility. With locations across the globe from the United States to Saudi Arabia to Guatemala, Starbucks has seventy-two locations spread across 26 countries. With such a large footprint, this paper will be address employees and local communities within the United States operations and the suppliers in the Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E) Practices program. Starbucks has broadcasted and built a platform upon their ethical sourcing, employee relations, and community engagement with an impressive transparency not often seen by global corporations today.
Before viewing the videos, I thought of how Whole Foods Market (WFM) is a model company for corporate social responsibility. I am therefore not surprised that the company was the first to endorse Honest Tea. Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea, echoes some of the very same sentiments that John Mackey, founder of WFM does with regards to the purpose and mission of his company. Per Goldman CRS is the focal point of how Honest Tea is managed and the motivation behind the business is not to see, “how many bottles can we sell to make money but how many bottles can we sell to expand this model of business to make its impact more powerful, creating more than just a business” (Honest Tea Marketing video).
T2 (Tea Too) is a tea heaven, a tea-lovers’ heaven. It is a premium brand established in 1996 in Australia over 18 years ago and cherished internationally by all tea devotees. It has 60 stores throughout in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and America. However, the first retail outlet is located in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Maryanne Shearer is the creative director of T2 - Australia’s leading tea retailer, with largest range of tea and tea wares in Australia. It offers the country’s largest range of premium, fragrant tea and tea wares from all around the globe. Tea devotees can spend hours at their taster table, trying all the different types of hot and cold teas they have come up with. It’s
Nonprofit’s leaders are fully aware that government is a very important source to obtain funds through grants and others means, to address their missions. Their oversite to digest this process is based through maintaining transparency, and accountability, of their employees, their board members, staff, and managers. The state has the will to support nonprofit organization through funding for; general operations, some specific projects, and/or contract to deliver services to the public and the ordinary citizens on behalf of the state government. (Young 2007) To stay ideal as a nonprofit business, board director must oversee that their entity is following all governmental laws and regulation to secure their status as 501(c)(3), and by filing
Every organization has a set of ethical standards that they abide by. The organization ethical standards purposes: it build the organization confidence in the community , keep the employees uniformed in what the organization strive to have as organizational behaviors and help the employees have guidelines to make ethical decisions that protects the organization.
Starbucks is renowned for its morality due to their innovative sustainability and environmental policies and operations. They strive to go beyond mandated regulations by implementing ethics as part of their core practices. However, no matter how flawless their code of ethics is; they, too, face ethical issues and commit unethical acts. First, they are responsible for putting small, local coffee shops out of business which creates a uniform retail culture throughout cities. Second, they advertise to provide 100% fair trade coffee when it is not truly 100% fairly traded. Third, they use hormone added milk that is detrimental to the human body as well as the environment. Fourth, they set unrealistic, unattainable recycling goals, so they were unachievable; in turn, their trustworthiness is hindered and their reputation is tarnished. Lastly, it was revealed that Starbucks discovered ways to avoid paying taxes in the UK. To this day, Starbucks continues to be recognized as an ethical company. Although sometimes controversial, they are innovatively striving to positively change the ways of society and business operations.
They provide a wide range of exquisite tea and all day dining TWG Tea experience to their consumers. The luxury tea and European concept are catered to all professionals around the world. TWG Tea has retail outlets and tea boutiques spanning from Asia-Pacific to the Middle East, mainly in countries such as Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. TWG Tea’s sheer passion for tea has earned them an international recognition through their exclusive blends, tea patisseries and other tea infused specialties. They offer more than 800 different single estate fine harvest teas in every season and continue to surprise us with new varieties and creations of tea in collaboration with some of the world’s most renowned estates.