Where does Valley Green Tea stand with regard to organic teas
Valley Green Tea is both health and environment conscious. When it comes to the relationship between us and the environment we live in, we believe in mutual respect and benefits.
We support organic farming and green products as we believe excessive use of synthetic products is harmful to both human health and the environment: When we list our products as 'organic', we:
- We obtain first hand information on the farming practice of our tea producers. We meet our suppliers, of whom most are tea farmers or are directly connected to the tea farmer, on a regular base to discuss farming procedures and inspect the tea plantations and factories when possible.
- We obtain a plantation organic certificate for most of our organic teas, such as organic white teas – either issued by a Chinese authority or a international organic body, sometimes both.
- For those teas that grow in the wild, for example our Wu Yi rock teas and Pu-erh tea, we take the approach of ‘know the farmers, know the products’. If the teas are harvested from the wild, there is no need for a certificate.
Valley Green Tea does not believe that individual organic certificates for individual products are necessary:
- While the evidence of the health benefits of tea drinking is overwhelming, the evidence of additional health benefits of consuming organic tea is not so convincing. In addition, tea is normally consumed as a brew. It is rare for the actual tea leaves to be digested, although the pesticides residue tests carried out by the Chinese authorities use ground dry leaves which would have much higher reading than the tea brew. We believe that the benefits of tea consumption largely out weight the potential harm caused by of residues, even when the tea is not organic. (This does not include those low end products where excessive synthetic fertilisers and pesticides are used - these products are not included in our product profile.)
- Teas themselves have potent detox effects. The Chinese herbalist legend Shen-Nong used to personally tasted all herbs to establish their effects. Some of them are toxic. He believed the only thing the kept him alive was to drink tea daily.
- We do not apply for individual organic certificate for individual products as we believe the additional value is not justified by the additional cost.
Conclusion:
Organically grown tea is a noble aim. And it was the way that the teas were cultivated in China for a long time. It has to be acknowledged however that we live in an era where intervention is required to support the current population with available land. Finding the optimal balance of using the most productive methods while causing minimum harm to both human and the environment is challenge if the earth is to be sustained.