Today is Number 4 - I checked! And it's TEA.
Very good for you this stuff apparently, much better than coffee.
What's not so good is the unfair deal workers on tea plantations get. Like most people, they get paid a pittance, have to work long hours and have virtually no protection in law. Middlemen take their cut...Need I go on?
Not on I say. read Rough Guide to Ethical Shopping for a list of companies that are unethical on this one.
So what can we do (you know what I'm going to say!) buy Fair Trade! On the side of the packets of most fair trade tea (especially co-op amongst others), you'll find little stories about how the buyers from Co-op, thanks to the demand for the products, have made this huge difference to lives. In one case in Africa, a creche has been built for workers' children and a community centre has also been built, where locals can find out what is going on in the world. All this because of a better deal through Fair Trade.
So check out your tea bags and if they don't brew to the fair trade standard, you know what to do!
And that's what you can do today to make a difference to make poverty history.
Short one I know, but I'm up to my eyeballs. When I get the email up and running for the blog I will post it to let you contact me direct!