I’ve been a coffee drinker for as long as I can remember. Two cups in the morning. That’s it.
Sometimes published studies tell you coffee is bad for you. Then other studies proclaim you’ll live longer if you have the stuff every day. I like the latter. After all, Starbucks can’t be wrong…can it? See, that’s the question. I have gone to mostly decaf over the years. Better for your blood pressure. |
Two days later I was steeped in the joy of actually starting to like the whole idea of teas. I started to write proudly about my accomplishments of learning to even enjoy a couple of them.
That wasn't what I'd planned. But I just couldn't bring myself to write the original fact-filled exposè that had been rolling around in my head for some time. It concerned something that I'd not wanted to think about, regarding the whole matter of tea. Pesticides.
You become aware of the agricultural problems facing farmers in hotter climates when you grow up and garden in a subtropical climate. It seems like the perfect environment for plant growth, but in fact there are challenges that North American farmers don't have to face. It's also a perfect growth environment for an abundance of bacteria, fungus and insects like nematodes, caterpillars and moths.
Tea is mostly grown in India, China, Kenya and Sri Lanka. The fields used to be enormous plantations, but now they are small holdings, farmed by people without huge knowledge of the dangers of pesticides. In addition, the farmers tend to use the cheapest older pesticides, and estimate the amount of residue on the leaves before export. This often does not sit well with importing countries who have allowable margins on these products, and those levels are often exceeded.
Only one brand, Red Rose, turned out to be completely pesticide free. It's worthy to note that some "organic" teas also tested positive for pesticides.
Asked for an explanation, our trusty government department, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) airily dismissed the findings, saying you’d need to drink 75 cups a day to imbibe dangerous levels of the chemicals. I guess some people would want to know why those “safe” levels were ever put in place? Obviously they are not being enforced.
Now tea producing countries are still involved in efforts to globally "harmonize" allowable pesticide levels, at the highest levels of course, and that would be applicable to all countries so that their tea production wouldn't be affected.
96 Percent of Indian-made tea contains pesticides, some of which have long been banned (via Natural News)
Results of tests indicate that Twining's and Red Rose seem to be the safe teas to buy.
A July 29, 2018 article discusses pesticides in tea as well.
The nasty chemicals lurking in your cup of tea
This reading stuff is enough to make your head spin. It had never occurred to me that teabags are actually made from plastic, which of course has been shown to leach chemicals into hot water…
Water then? Let’s not even go there. Fact of the matter is, there’s just no escape. We all need to drink something. But technology is killing our fluids of choice.
Tea drinkers unite! Hope this news is old news to you, and that you've already sussed out some good tea sources. If you have, share them here, 'cos that's always a helpful thing to do for your friends. Thanks for sticking with me here, through thick and thin, and have a truly great week.