Karina/law meeting notes

25 JULY

Rainforest Alliance: Rainforest Alliance President Nigel Sizer On CNN

27 JUNE

Atlas Obscura: Map of America's Creepy Clow Epidemic
Erik Shilling put together an interactive map with all sitings, reports and false reports - gathered different types of data and resources into one, just like FFF

11 JUNE

YouTube: How Bubblegum is Made

9 JUNE

http://fff.xpub.nl/wiki/MediaWiki:Common.js

'Fake Food Fanatics',
'False Fishy Finance',
'Fake Food Fanatics',
'Frozen Finger Food',
'Fictitiously Fair Finance',
'Forbidden Fruit Factory',
'Familiar Fatal Fungus',
'Few Flawed Facts',
'Facts Face Fiction',
'Festive Fibre Frosting',
'Flavoured Flaming Figs',
'False Faded Flavour',
'Farm Fighter Flogging',
'Famous Fear Ferret',
'Furious Fudge Flab',
'Finding Food Fungus',
'Fraudulent French Flan',
'Floppy Flan Friday',
'Fred Flintstone’s Frittata',
'Filthy Floppy Frankfurter',
'Flatulent Fiber Funyuns',
'Fancy Foamy Frappe',
'Famous Flavoured Frappuccino',
'Furry Flying Fish',
'Fundamental Food Failures',
'Flaming Food Flood',
'Flaming Fondue Flow',
'Freezer Fish Fans',
'Funky Fruit Farms',
'Fair-trade Financial Faux-pa',
'Facing Fraudulent Facts',
'Fraudulent Farmer Forrum',
'Faulty French Fries',
'Far Fetched Food',
'Frozen Finance Frauds',
'Foul Fish Fillet',
'False Fact Fabrication',
'Fried Food Fixation',
'Flourishing Fig Fascination',
'Flattened Forest Fashion',
'Flaming Forest Farm',
'Figment of Fiction',

6 JUNE

Vox: How seapunk went from meme to mainstream
mentioned using Google Trends to find history of searched terms

Google Trends!

could possibly use Google Trends search results / graphs in FFF

31 MAY

Download Mondale articles here
Download Unilever articles here
Download slotting fees extract by Mary Sullivan here

Mention to Femke

changed from referata
cc subscription
more products
lights

Feedback from Femke

ask severine about copyright content
15th june ask lawyer
make one sample with cc info
email cc
project comes from a sense of urgency. not civil disobedience
establish our level of disobedience before entering conversation
be risky!
not be too nice

added pages
Douwe Egberts Filter Coffee
Jacobs Cronat Gold Instant Coffee - why messed up url? http://fff.xpub.nl/wiki/Jacobs_Cro%C2%ADnat_Gold_Instant_Coffee
Innocent Smoothie

29 MAY

Stimorol ICE - peppermint Ingrediënten: Zoetstoffen (sorbitol, isomalt, maltitolen, aspartaam, acesulfaam-K, sucralose), gom, vulstof (E170), aroma's, verdikkingsmiddel (E414), emulgator (zonnebloemlecithine), kleurstoffen (E171, E133), glansmiddel (E903), antioxidant (E321)

Stimorol 60 MINUTES - peppermint Ingrediënten: Zoetstoffen (xylitol, isomalt, sorbitol, maltitolstroop, acesulfaam-K, sucralose), gom, aroma's, stabilisator (E414), emulgator (zonnebloemlecithine), kleurstoffen (E171, E133)

synonyms of E414 - thickening agent, stabiliser and emulsifier

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
CC License used by Open Food Facts to use from Open Food.ch

History of empires and how they link
Wikipedia: Cadbury History
Wikipedia: Lever Brothers
Wikipedia: Batchelors
Wikipedia: Lever Brothers
Use comic from article? fd: Barbaren aan de poort bij Unilever

File:Foodempires.png

1872 - Antoon Jurgens founded the first margarine factory in the world in Oss, Netherlands
1885 - brothers William Hesketh Lever and James Darcy Lever founded a new soap-manufacturing company, Lever Brothers
1888 - Samuel van den Bergh opened his margarine factory in Kleve
1927 - Antoon Jurgens and Samuel van den Bergh merged in to form Margarine Unie
1929 - Unilever was formed by a merger of the operations of Dutch Margarine Unie and British soapmaker Lever Brothers

1969 - Cadbury merged with drinks company Schweppes to form Cadbury Schweppes
The merger put an end to Cadbury's close links to its Quaker founding family (part of Pepsico)
1986 - Cadbury Schweppes sold its Beverages and Foods division to a management buyout known as Premier Brands for £97 million (Premier Foods primarily competes with Unilever)
1986? - Schweppes switched its alliance in the UK from Pepsi to Coca-Cola
2007 - it was revealed that Cadbury Schweppes was planning to split its business into two separate entities: one focusing on its main chocolate and confectionery market; the other on its US drinks business
2008 - The demerger of Cadbury Schweppes with the drinks business becoming Dr Pepper Snapple Group

Ethiscore search
Ethical Consumer: Categories and Rating Scores
Ethical Consumer: About Us
Ethical Consumer: Our Ethical Ratings
Ethical Consumer: Our Mission

Is Douwe Egberts the same as Jacobs coffee?

Questions for Michael:

categories / tags / combine product with movies and illustration - semantic mediawiki?
ask about better table (main page and nutritional values)
corporate critic today? need PZI domain
how to create algorithm for changing name (or logo)? long gif?
issues with git
responsive for mobile (only shows 'highlights'
referata v.s. pzwiki

Other tasks

art page - find more related pieces
AH copyright for images
methodology page
come up with a new score that combines different ratings (nutriscore / ethiscore...) all together

New site domain!
http://fff.xpub.nl/wiki/Main_Page

25 MAY

fff.referata: Stimorol gum
fff.referata: Bubblicious gum

23 MAY

Marcel Mars session
Monoskop: https://monoskop.org/Marcell_Mars
pad: https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/p/marcelmars

Feedback

not so clear of legal / illegal (white / black)
try to look at the in-between to create a discussion
how find community?
aaaaarg: asks only few things from uploader
how much do you require before you loose enthusiasm from contributors?
librarian / researcher: when does it become research
researching = annotating, making a catalog - make interface for that
hypothes.is
classical German media series: tell a story, tell so much about the world
annotate, enrich and highlight what we can already find
google alert for bad press
http://tvtropes.org

http://tvtropes.org advantages

people investing time
being picky

3 options

data approach: combining data and allowing people to annotate
shopping bag of stuff: see how far we can research
a bit of both: width and depth of research

make clear how movies relate to products

cataloging vs annotating https://hypothes.is/
Marcell Mars: "great people are crazy" tv tropes = hipsters on steroids.

Budget pad

will we need any printed content: poster, leaflets, publication? - no, just focus on interface
how will we present the wiki during the launch: tablet, computer screen?

Further plan
Need 5 products. 3 edible, 2 not (tampons and ...?)
Guardian: UK government to ban microbeads from cosmetics by end of 2017
Unilever: Micro-plastics

Feedback from Marcell

don't focus on building a community
rely on own labour
how would you describe your methodology? it's more interesting than the particular product
show your methodology

automatised bad press might be a bad idea, the quality might drop
- curated is more interesting and exciting
- we as curators get the alarm and curate what gets published
- (invisible, visible, opaque)

how to simplify, unify only comes once you have more products (e.g. the need for tags comes once you have over 50 items)
- categories might link to products (if you like this, you might be interested in watching this)

explain ideology
we might have 2 projects here (food-themed documentaries, profiling food products)

fact checking from documentaries: methodology
- we hear this in documentaries, we check it, we learn about products
- documentaries are part of methodology
- using the movies, question them, use as a starting point, fact check

how will openfoodfacts feel about us? we copy, what are you adding to it? why make another?
- use hypothes.is on top of their website to annotate / curate
- www.examine.com methodology: collecting reports about supplements

To do:

General design/proposal for Interfacing The Law presence in HNI on 15 June ---- Giulia (ಠ_ಠ) und Max ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ <3 <2 <1
Description/introduction to Interfacing The Law + event + edit description of each project ---- ————— |||||||| ε(´סּ︵סּ`)з Emily
Prepare / bring xpub publications to sell -- Karina óÔÔò ʕ·͡ᴥ·ʔ óÔÔò
Refresh website to promote the event, presentations (https://issue.xpub.nl/ ) -- Emily, Franc ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contact Katia/HNI -- Nadine (⋟﹏⋞)
One day installation or longer? Discuss w. Katia if longer
Contact Katia with installation ideas/plans 8 June latest:
Contact person for the budget (communicate with Leslie):
Welcoming Varinia 30/05: Karina
Gathering questions for Lawrence Liang 8 June latest: Gulia
Budget -- Karina
Dress up like pirates? patches, rum, aarrggh capitan, I see earth! I download a file!

22 MAY

pull images from unsplash

On landing page

either force images into squares of same size - Instagram style
allow different shapes and sizes, not aligned in any way
allow different shapes and sizes, align at the bottom to make it seem like products on a shelf (Alignment: baseline)

21 MAY

Grey Area

Decrypting the ingredients
Grown in estates:

Kenya tea plantation location: Kericho
Argentina tea plantation location: [
Sri Lanka tea plantation location: Haputale

Owned in estates:

Kenya tea plantation location: Kericho
Tanzania tea plantation location: [

Rainforest Alliance: India's Tea Estates

History

of brand
of product

History of tea

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to write about drinking tea
The Dutch brought tea to Europe commercially. It was expensive though, and originally only high society could afford such a delicacy.
It wasn’t until Charles II married Portuguese princess and known tea lover, Catherine of Braganza, that tastes changed. Wanting to keep up with the new queen, Brits soon took to tea over coffee.
In the 18th century, more tea was smuggled in than was imported legally. The government reduced taxes, and tea suddenly became affordable and legal.

Lipton: History of Lipton Tea as told by Lipton

"SIR THOMAS LIPTON’S MARKETING GENIUS"
1871 first Lipton grocery store ("imported the world’s largest cheese")
became millionaire
1890 first plantation in Dambatenne, Sri Lanka (very close to current location in Haputale)
1893 "officially established the Thomas J Lipton Co.®, a tea packaging company based in Hoboken, New Jersey. He felt that tea should be a drink for everyone, not just the wealthy, so he strived to make packaging and shipping less expensive." - outsourcing
tea bags were an accidental creation by American merchant Thomas Sullivan, sent samples to customers in silk bags
Lipton snitched tea bag idea, "was also the first tea brand to print brewing instructions on tea bag tags"

May 2007, our parent company, Unilever, pledged to source tea sustainably by working with the Rainforest Alliance
In 2015, all our Lipton® tea bags were 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified.

BBC: The dark history behind India and the UK's favourite drink (2016)

Beneath the Surface

Nutrition facts

NutriScore

Ethical/Environmental facts of brand
Ethiscore

Lipton 14/15
Unilever 3-7/15

Advertising
Financial Times: Case study: Lipton (2011)

Bad Press
PETA: Victory! Lipton Ends Cruel Animal Tests (2011)

Time: Shocking Conditions for Workers on India's Tea Plantations Revealed (2015)

BBC about Rainforest Alliance: The bitter story behind the UK's national drink (2015) and Indian tea workers' conditions remain very poor (2016)

17 MAY

Product Name

Source website: https://

Common name:

Portion: portion:: 100 g

Packaging: packaging:: Boîte, packaging:: Carton, packaging:: Plastique, packaging:: Sachet

Sub-brand: sub-brand:: Lipton

Corporate brand: corporate brand:: Unilever

Brand website: https://

Labels, certifications, awards:: Labels, certifications, awards:: Green Dot, Labels, certifications, awards:: Rainforest Alliance

Origin of ingredients: origin of ingredients::

Manufactured in: manufactured in::

Stores:

Countries where sold:

Ingredients:

16 MAY

Film list
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Nadiners/_foodfilms

Feedback / look into

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri - Empire
No Logo
think about the platform you will work with
make search (e.g. show all under category 'cheese' or under 3g salt)
why some things are mentioned, why some not?
differences in countries?
openfoodfacts: could we ask them for their data?
the document liberation project - reverse engineering file formats (affiliate with, not redefine project)
desire for transparency v.s. trying to cover up by shifting attention
what is shown on packaging, what they gain from regulations and norms
decrypting language that is used in marketing / packaging (e.g. 100% natural)
confront front-facing packaging and (f)actual ingredients
what we have already given from openfoodfacts, and what other types of information is missing?
transparency / responsibility: make clear that what is 'on the surface' comes directly from openfoodfacts, 'beneath the surface' is what we add
explicit reuse of openfoodfacts makes our work stronger
sharpen difference between openfoodfacts and our research - do not overlap 'on the surface' / 'grey area' / 'beneath the surface'
how to populate your site?
look into expenses: what and how much?

How to call 'empires'?

consumer goods company
manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods
multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation
manufacturing and processing conglomerate
transnational food and drink company
consumer goods corporation

FFF on Referata
http://fff.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page

How to improve openfoodfacts?

simplify / clean up
only one language
explain that nutriscore isn't that bad - specify what it is for
reduce product choice? no 3 uploads of the same product
not introduced product upload with a barcode - have it later
they don't show all information

15 MAY

how to expand from already existing archive?
focus on one product and add to it

additions

ethiscore
slotting fee
money spent on advertising
comparison of 'empires'

Albert Heijn frozen pizza options

AH brand
Dr. Oetker

Albert Heijn ice-cream options

AH brand
Magnum (Unilever)
Ben & Jerry's (Unilever)
Heartbrand (Unilever)
Hertog (Unilever, bought in 1996)

Magnum ethiscore: unknown
Heartbrand ethiscore: unknown
Ben & Jerry's ethiscore: 3.5/15

Interfacing Food app
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Nadiners/_interfacingfoodapp

ON THE SURFACE

Name of Product
Image
Product characteristics

Quantity
Packaging
Sub-Brand –> Brand –> Empire Brand
Categories
Labels, certifications, awards
Manufacturing or processing places
Link to the product page on the official site of the producer
Stores
Countries where sold

Ingredients on packaging

simple: origin / where grown

Nutrition facts

Nutrient levels for 100 g

GREY AREA

Decrypting the ingredients

complex: origin / where actually grown
Additives
Synonyms

Deeper look into packaging

what is it made out of (e.g. cans)

History

of brand
of product

BENEATH THE SURFACE

Nutrition facts

NutriScore

Ethical/Environmental facts of brand

Ethiscore of brand out of 15
- include screenshot
- how much money you need to pay to access the information
Ethiscore of product out of 20
- include screenshot
- how much money you need to pay to access the information
ISO certificate of brand - mention even if not existent
- include screenshot
- how much money you need to pay to access the information

Slotting fee

how much brands pay to be visible on shelf
contracts with stores (e.g. dr. Oetker pizza or Unilever ice-cream monopoly)

Advertising

money spent
branding
tactics
promises (e.g. "By 2020 we will...")

Bad Press

images of factories / how it's made
articles if company got sued
case itself
reports

Also found:
Business Insider: Here's what Velveeta and Kraft Singles are actually made of

11 MAY

Vox: The hidden war over grocery shelf space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImZD2JGxbmc

Rigged: Supermarket Shelves for Sale by Gary Rivlin
https://cspinet.org/resource/rigged

"And yet at the end of 2015, Clemmy’s went out of business. Its failure shows how today’s food marketplace is tilted in favor of the world’s largest food manufacturers and against everyone else—including companies offering better-for- you products." (Rivlin p.1)

"You can't just start selling your ice-cream. If you want to be in a major grocer, you have to pay. Journalist Gary Rivlin recently wrote about the slotting fee economy in a report for the Centre for Science in the Public Interest. His story of a real ice-cream brand called Clemmy's is a guide to what might happen to your generic ice-cream brand. To get generic ice-cream inside a freezer door you'd have to pay $30,000 to get into 350 stores. And that's at a discount. Once you got in, sometimes you have to pay up to stay on the shelf. You're competing against giants like Nestle and Unilever. Rivlin reports they control basically 90% of the available freezer doors because they've already paid up. For giants like them a $30,000 fee isn't a lot. For you, however, it might be a major cost. Even then, paying for your generic ice-cream to get on the shelves wouldn't necessarily give you control. Instead, category captains - the big buys who pay the most - draft where every item goes, which can determine how well things sell." [1:16 - 2:20] (Vox video)

Unilever: Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, Heart Brand (Ola, Walls, Algida)
Nestle: Nesquick, Kit Kat, Rolo ice cream
General Mills: Haagen-Danzs

Mary W. Sullivan (University of Chicago) defends slotting fees
can purchase for $10
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/467380

They help stores prioritise abundance of products
Since 1980s technological advances raised amount of products from 2,000 to 18,000

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Report on the Federal Trade Commission Workshop on Slotting Allowances and Other Marketing Practices in the Grocery Industry (2001)
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/report-federal-trade-commission-workshop-slotting-allowances-and-other-marketing-practices-grocery/slottingallowancesreportfinal_0.pdf

slotting fees are typically higher where space is scarcer
e.g. ice cream or candy by check-out isle
if you're able to pay $30,000 fee, means you did your research and know your product will sell
80-90% of new products fail

Food Marketing Institute (FMI) - represents grocers
[Rivlin's] "report seriously mischaracterised the legitimate food industry practice of slotting fees"

Rivlin and FTC asked grocers on their opinion
Walmart: "unlike many other grocers, Walmart does not charge slotting fees... We are working with our suppliers every day to serve our shared customers" - they believe it raises prices
Whole Foods: similar opinion. Want to give test stores to give products a chance

FMI: " It is not a shadowy backroom deal cut, but an openly discussed agreement to facilitate manufacturers helping retailers recoup the labor, spacing and shelving costs entailed in marketing new product lines"

also push in-store brands to give more control, which gives less space to manufacturers (think Albert Hein!)

10 MAY

Vox: The "natural" label on your food is baloney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X72KpJKKUhI#t=4.1432982

insert: Lipton Asian White & Rose tea packaging photo

9 MAY

https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/p/desription-food-lib

5 MAY

Found another version. Newer / outdated?

How could we represent these 'empires' as people?

4 MAY

Unilever
https://www.unilever.com/legal.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever

"Unilever is organised into four main divisions: Personal Care (production and sale of skin care and hair care products, deodorants and oral care products); Foods (production and sale of soups, bouillons, sauces, snacks, mayonnaise, salad dressings, margarines and spreads); Refreshment (production and sale of ice cream, tea-based beverages, weight-management products and nutritionally enhanced staples sold in developing markets); and Home Care (production and sale of home care products including powders, liquids and capsules, soap bars and other cleaning products).[78] In the financial year ended 31 December 2013, Unilever had a total turnover of €49.797 billion of which 36% was from Personal Care, 27% from Foods, 19% from Refreshment and 18% from Home Care. Unilever invested a total of €1.04 billion in research and development in 2013.

Unilever is one of the largest media buyers in the world, and invested around €6 billion (US$8 billion) in advertising and promotion in 2010."

Products - 13 $1 billion brands

Axe
Dove
Heartbrand
Hellmann’s
Knorr
Lipton
Lux
Magnum
Omo
Rama
Rexona
Sunsilk
Surf

Lipton Tea
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1073495-d3655567-Reviews-Lipton_s_Seat-Haputale_Uva_Province.html

Anual Report 2015
https://www.unilever.com/Images/annual_report_and_accounts_ar15_tcm244-478426_en.pdf

More reports
https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/sustainable-living-news/reports-and-publications/index.html

Bad press
Former manager sues Unilever over ‘illegal’ sacking (Daily Nation, June 2012)
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Former-manager-sues-Unilever-over-illegal-sacking-/1056-1431282-ei34nh/index.html

Atwoli: dismissal of Unilever tea workers illegal (3 years ago)
http://www.hivisasa.com/posts/3912
"The court heard that the Kericho-based tea company dismissed a group of workers on diverse dates between November 2013 and April 2014 on allegations of violating a document termed as Code of Business Principles... The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union on Thursday moved to the industrial court to stop the eviction orders by the tea company claiming the code of business principles was not brought to the attention of the employees."
Unilever Code of Business Principles
https://www.unilever.co.uk/Images/4394-cobp-code-policies-booklet-external.v12_tcm1252-409220_en.pdf

Unilever admits toxic dumping: will clean up but not come clean (Greenpeace, June 2001)
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/unilever-admits-toxic-dumping-will-clean-up-but-not-come-clean
"The company has also agreed to undertake a clean-up of 5.3 tons of mercury wastes it illegally dumped at a local scrapyard, but it is still refusing to accept that local people and workers at the factory in Kodiakanal may have been exposed to the highly toxic metal."

Tesco and Unilever fail test (The Guardian, January 2005)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/jan/29/supermarkets.unilever

Ethical Consumer Information Systems
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/shoppingethically/ourethicalratings/environment.aspx#pollution
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/portals/0/downloads/categoriesa4.pdf

environmental reporting
climate change
pollution & toxics
habitats & resources
palm oil

Ethical Consumer Research Association
http://www.corporatecritic.org/info/rr/ethiscore.aspx

A company Ethiscore of 0 to 15 points. 15 is the best Ethiscore and 0 worst
A product Ethiscore of 0 to 20 points. 20 is the best Ethiscore and 0 worst.

Ethiscores divided into categories
http://www.corporatecritic.org/categories.aspx

Environment
- Environmental Reporting
- Climate Change
- Pollution & Toxics
- Habitats & Resources
- Palm Oil
Animals
- Animal Testing
- Factory Farming
- Animal Rights
People
- Human Rights
- Workers' Rights
- Supply Chain Management
- Irresponsible Marketing
- Arms & Military Supply
Politics
- Controversial Technologies
- Boycott Call
- Political Activities
- Anti-Social Finance
- Company Ethos (+ve)
Product sustainability (+ve)
- Organic Product (+ve)
- Fairtrade Product (+ve)
- Environmental Features (+ve )
- Other Sustainability Features (+ve)
- Animal Welfare Features (+ve)

Subscribe to see Ethiscores
http://www.corporatecritic.org/login/subscribe.aspx

Annual Rate: £899 (ex VAT)
Annual "Not for Profit" Rate: £699 (ex VAT)
Monthly Rate: £150 (ex VAT)
Monthly "Not for Profit" Rate: £120 (ex VAT)
Daily Rate: £20.83 (ex VAT)

still managed to find some info without subscription. ethiscore 7/15

Dilma
http://ethicalteasociety.org/about-us/faq
Why is Dilmah not certified as Fair Trade?

We would not join the Fair Trade movement as Dilmah tea goes far beyond Fair Trade.

Fair Trade does not address the fundamental weakness of the tea industry. Although well intentioned, in the case of tea, Fair Trade perpetuates the outdated colonial model of raw material being imported into and packaged in the UK, where all the significant branding profits lie.

Only a small fraction of the Fair Trade premium charged to consumers for tea is paid to the grower, typically only 7% of the shelf price finds its way back as the total payment for tea supplied. Dilmah returns a minimum of 10% of pre-tax profits to growers, distributed via the MJF Foundation (see www.mjffoundation.org). This has a far greater impact on the tea growers and the Ceylon Tea Industry than Fair Trade. MJF Foundation funds are used to ensure, among other things, child nutrition, midday meals, educational scholarships, hospitals and school facilities as standard provisions for the Dilmah workforce. Fair Trade is also not about quality, it’s a seal of approval to sell at a premium price appealing to consumer consciences. Any new brand wanting to sell an average quality product at a premium price can apply for the Fair Trade mark and start a “virtual marketing” firm that outsources tea packaging and sourcing of the tea to other UK firms. This means there might be up to 5 or 6 middlemen between the grower and the retailer with very little invested back to the tea growers. Dilmah is the antithesis of this model.

Dilmah Tea is entirely packaged and branded in Sri Lanka without middlemen in the West. In any industry, the fairest form of trade is for the producer to offer their product to consumers using as few intermediaries as possible. In the case of Ceylon Tea, gathering and retaining the product’s value at origin benefits the grower in the form of a fair price for a product that requires effort, expertise and dedication to produce; it benefits the tea industry, which is ailing from years of exploitation and deprivation of a fair share of the revenue from the sale of its produce; and, in our case, it benefits the under-developed economy of Sri Lanka. Importantly, it also benefits the consumer in presenting a better quality tea.

Much of the Fair Trade movement focuses on worker conditions and moving towards an acceptable quality of life for workers. In Sri Lanka, standards in tea garden worker conditions have been legally enforced for over one hundred years as it is the most established global tea producer.