War on Want's report, A Bitter Cup, focussing on tea workers in Kenya and India, revealed the poor conditions for many tea workers supplying the UK.
Based on interviews with workers, it shows that although the tea industry is booming and supermarkets are cashing in, workers are harassed, poorly paid and denied trade union rights on tea plantations and in tea packing factories. Supermarkets have invariably failed to use their influence to improve this situation, so War on Want has been campaigning for the UK government to implement binding regulatory measures to protect workers overseas.
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DOWNLOAD THE FULL 'WHAT'S IN YOUR CUPPA?' SPECIAL INVESTIGATION HERE (PDF)
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NEWS ANALYSIS Special report PG Tips and Lipton tea hit by 'sexual harassment and poor conditions' Unilever and the Rainforest Alliance deny female employees at the Kericho tea plantation in Kenya are subjected to sexual harassment. But Dutch research outfit SOMO paints a very different picture of life for some working at the plantation? Verity Largo visits Kenya to investigate |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Special report Revealed: the bitter taste of Cambodia’s sugar boom Sugar may seem innocuous enough, but sweet-toothed Western consumers could be fuelling conflict between poor farming communities and big business with every spoonful. Sam Campbell reports from Phnom Penh |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Special report Milk: why the white stuff leaves a bad taste Unlike tea and sugar, the fresh milk we drink with our cuppa is likely to come from farms in the UK. But as Tom Levitt reports, there are still serious environmental and animal welfare problems associated with the UK dairy sector |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Special report Sugar: why our favourite sweetener is not so sweet Sugar can be produced from both sugar beet and sugarcane. Sugarcane production is of particular concern in terms of environmental degradation and human rights abuses, reports William McLennan |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Special report Environmental damage and human rights abuses blight global tea sector Human rights violations have been reported at plantations in virtually all major tea producing countries, while tea growing itself has a profound effect on the local environment. William McLennan reports |
