Television
news bombards us daily with images of global destruction, famine, disease, and
wars. No wonder we despair at the
future mankind is forging for itself, one filled with hopelessness and religious
fanatics hiding behind guns.
However,
what the news does not show is a modified
trend amongst the citizens of the world - a transfer from salvation to liberation;
a change in mindset and taking responsibility, teaching other
like-minded individuals by example.
As a
reporter I travel to many third-world countries, those with just emerging
markets, and of late have seen this thread as a constant in all of them.
In
poverty stricken Africa I met a Ugandan
businessman who formed Rwenzori Coffee Company and empowered his farmers by
teaching them how to tend to their plants and negotiate good market prices. Recently
I met a group of Malawian coffee growers who were facing the
near collapse of the industry and banded
together to form the Mzuzu Coffee Company - now one of the most sought after coffee exporters in Africa. It only takes one person with foresight, a person
who has lost faith in government policy and decides to take control of his own
future, enhancing his community and benefiting everyone surrounding him.
I had the privilege of meeting another
such pioneer when I recently travelled to the
tropical paradise island of Sri Lanka, just off the
southern tip of India; home to arguably the
world’s best cricketers and legendary Ceylon tea.
What the guidebooks promised and what I found were worlds
apart. Sri Lanka’s
cities are full of dilapidated buildings, untouched since independence in 1948,
with garbage strewn everywhere. The markets – noisy and confusing – are shrouded
in tropical cloaks of decay. Nobody seems too concerned about living in
squalor.
With no
motorways and no sidewalks, pedestrians are forced to walk in the chaotic traffic where the
‘every man for himself’ rule applies. There seems to be a type of frenetic
morse code Sri Lankan drivers use. Everyone leans on their
horns - not signifying an urgent alert, mind you, but rather
to communicate to other road users
that they are approaching, or to
move out the way, perhaps mobilise a
sleeping street dog, give another
vehicle access, hello, thank you. Each honk seems to convey a different message.
Thus I extracted myself from this mayhem and headed to the
mountains.
The Tea
Country, as it is know, is Sri
Lanka’s most magnificent region - tropical
waterfalls spilling to bottomless gorges, views of pastoral splendour to
undulating horizons. One lookout I particularly recall was reminiscent of a
shaken-out quilt just settling back onto a bed. Punctuating these tranquil settings are cool mountain resort
towns acting as gentle reminders of an era dominated by monied English tea
barons’ colonial Tudor-styled homes, complete with trimmed rose bushes and
manicured lawns.
I became
quietly excited as I neared my first appointment; the
plantation where Ceylon’s
Godfather of tea, James Taylor, experimentally
planted the island’s first 19 acres
of tea in 1867. A sign announced where the
remains of Taylor’s
hut could be found and another
offered the name of the estate I was entering. My driver stopped so I
could take in the landscape - glorious
swathes of intensely green tea
acreage which not so much dazzled my senses as reawakened them.
At the entrance to the
factory I was met by a locked gate. A security guard, a formidable-looking
stick of a man, indicated the
factory to be closed for the day. I
asked that he call the manager as I
had an appointment. The manager sent his deputy, who could not bring himself to
come down to meet me but instead gesticulated to my driver that we should leave
and come back when the factory was
open – tomorrow maybe.
On our
way out, we passed the tea picker’s living
quarters. What I saw there took
filth to a different level. To prevent myself from gagging, I needed to cover
my nose and mouth as we drove by their
stable-like accommodations. I saw no electric power lines to their dwellings and from the
foul stench presume their outdoors
latrines were not functional. I was therefore
not shocked to see an adult squatting over a long trench, running down one end
of the enclosure, voiding his bowels,
whilst a toddler played in the very
same trench but a few feet away.
And thus
it was, in a shocked and sickened state that I arrived at my next plantation appointment
near the town of Haputale – the Thotulagalla Estate, part of the Greenfield Bio Plantations Group.
A barrel
of a man extended his meaty hand giving mine a vigorous shake.
“Welcome”,
he growled, “I’m Newman. Mike Newman.” He indicated that I should follow him up
the sloping driveway to his house
beside the factory. The Thotulagalla
Estate is some 6,000 feet above sea level and produces organically grown tea which
is processed at the on-site factory.
Mike Newman,
a seasoned planter who hails from a respected cultivating family, manages the Thotulagalla Organic Tea plantation with a
labour force of some 350.
Mindful
of the impact conventional farming
practices have on the environment
and society, the Thotulagalla Estate
is committed to using only organic, environmental and socially ethical methods
in the growing and processing of their product and carry the
certified Level A (full organic) status.
We
decanted into Mike’s 4x4 and drove through the
immense Estate. I asked that he stop for a while so I could photograph and
observe the spellbinding image of the vivid saris amongst the
waist high emerald bushes. The hands of the
tea pickers resembled butterflies flitting over the
shrubs, moving independently of one another,
nipping off the youngest and topmost
leaves by snapping the stem, then tossing the
pickings into the large baskets on their backs.
“Ceylon
Tea,” Mike announced, “has for the
past century had the clear
distinction of being the finest,
most fragrant tea in the world.” He
considered the landscape before him.
“We are
blessed with the ability to grow tea
in an ideal climate and in near perfect conditions here in the Uva province. By us using only purely organic
methods of growing and harvesting, we reduce the
caffeine and tannin, which undoubtedly contributes to the
distinct richness and flavour you’ll find in your cup – which is as nature
intended.”
I
enquired after the need to go
organic, seeing that conditions where already so agreeable.
“The
health benefits, to start with, are numerous,” Mike claimed. “An organic
workplace provides for a safer working environment. In conventional agriculture
there is widespread misuse of
agro-chemical fertilisers, herbicide and pesticides due to lack of awareness, due
to not reading instructions, due to not wearing protective clothing or lack of
chemical storage knowledge. No such issues exist with organic products.”
He
continued. “The misuse of chemicals often leads to products reaching local
markets with harmfully high level of pesticide residue. This does not
occur with organic food.”
Mike went
on to explain that organic crops may initially yield less, but this is
outweighed but the cost of
production which is much lower.
“There
are social benefits to organic agricultural practices too. Firstly, it’s
essentially sustainable and requires no external inputs to keep the system going indefinitely. As nothing is paid to
national- and multi-national companies for the
supply of chemicals, money stays on the
farm, in the farming community, and
in the country, thus ending the poverty trap.”
“You can
only image the environmental
benefits this has,” Mike gesticulated at the
plantation before us. “Use of agro-chemicals over time reduces the quality of the
topsoil, vital for plant growth. As a result, as time evolves farmers need to
use more and more chemical fertiliser to achieve the
same results. Sustainability of organic farming systems involves soil
development and conservation as a major aspect. Use of manure, compost and
vegetable matter improves the soil
structure and consequently improves soil quality. Over time the productivity of the
soil increases the output or
harvest.”
“Then you
also need to think of the water which
drains through soil laden with agro-chemicals, eventually entering rivers and the ocean. Agro-chemicals are not only harming the fish but also the
environment and the wildlife that
drink from the rivers. Organic farming
means no contamination of any kind.”
Mike detailed
the adverse effects of agro-chemicals
on the many species of wild plants,
animals, insects and birds, as can be seen in Europe and other Western countries. There has been a steady
decline in numbers of songbirds, wild flowers in hedgerows and fields, and
native animal species.
I noticed
some tea pickers being bussed off to a building in the
valley and enquired after their
destination.
“Nursing
mothers are transported to the crèche three times a day,” Mike claimed.
Encouraged
by this show of humanity, I enquired after the
other facilities Thotulagalla Estate
provides their staff and discovered
that not only was there a crèche,
but a primary school and a newly built secondary school too, with teachers
provided by the Education Department;
an estate medical practitioner, a brand-new community centre, and really good
housing – each with a patch of land for self cultivation or live-stock grazing.
I asked
to me taken to these facilities and
later met Malar, a soft spoken kindergarten teacher with large doe eyes who showed
off her spotlessly tidy amenities; and Shilpa, the
Estate’s head teacher who showed her eager class a scrapbook containing letters
and photographs I brought for them from
a school in my hometown.
Thotulagalla
Estate has a medical-centre with a newly retired pharmacist (according to Mike
he needs replacing as he plans to visit relatives in India); medicines and
midwife facilities are provided free to the
employees and their families; family
planning is available to all and a women’s medical officer works on the Estate. Free treatment is offered to Estate
employees and their families at the hospital in the
nearby Haputale.
I walked
around the little village which
contained neat brick houses (water and energy supplied by the Estate) and found willing models for my camera. Mike
and his petite wife, Hirani, chatted with off-duty staff that came out to greet
them. Clearly the
Newman’s were held in high esteem.
“This is
our newly built community centre,” Hirani Newman announced. “It was built with
funds partly derived from Fair-trade and partly our Social Committee.”
Although
it is optional to buy Fair-trade labels the
Thotulagalla Estate take it a step further
and direct a sizable chunk of their profit
towards the Estate’s Social
Committee.
“I have
taught a few of the ladies how to
make decorative ornaments, the finer
points of cooking, the art of decorating
a wedding-cake and very soon I’ll have a beautician from Colombo visit and
teach us how to dress and make-up a Buddhist and Hindu bride,” Hirani beautiful
face smiled brightly. “This way the
Social Committee will be able to derive an income from the
community centre by hiring it out to neighbouring Estates and villages,
offering a package deal.”
The
Thotulagalla Estate is owned by Greenfield Bio Plantations and has five foreign
directors – two based in India, two in Australia and one in Switzerland, and
promoted worldwide by Lanka Organics based in Colombo.
“They
give me a free hand and let me run the
Estate as I see fit,” Mike volunteered.
We
proceeded to the large white tea factory
where Mike guided me through the complicated
process of tea withering, rolling,
firing, drying and grading.
“Our
present range of organic teas includes organic black tea from pure Ceylon to
English Breakfast, green teas, herbal and fruit teas.” I sampled each one and
could not decide which I liked more, then
decided to try them all again.
On our
way out of the factory I spotted a
room containing a couple of warped old tables, rickety chairs and a few
computers dating back to the 80s.
“This is
where Hirani teaches secondary school pupils the
fundamentals of I.T.,” Mike said.
“You see
we are not only dedicated to the
highest standards of production - we are equally passionate about the quality of life our staff enjoy. You see, our
social and environmental objectives have ensured that our community benefit
through our extensive work programme.”
Standing
at the precipice of the Thotulagalla Estate, mist swirling around my
ankles and a light breeze dancing with my hair, I surveyed before me a mystic
valley in hues of blue and lavender, stitched with wisps of silver mist. I half
expected a dragon to swoop out of a hidden cave but instead found the branches around me were hung heavy with birds
who sought a suitable vantage point from which to drink in the timelessly fetching visa.
I could
hear shrieks of hilarity of a joke being told by the
usually serene pickers behind me and distant laughter of school children
ambling home. I turned to look at Mike and Hirani, who were embraced, and
quietly wondered where the
television news cameras were now and how refreshing it would be if, for just
one day, we were bombarded by images like this – images portraying citizens of the world offering hope and prosperity, kindness and
guidance. I felt somewhat humbled standing in the
presence of true leader.
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count: 2,210
Lanka
Organics (Pvt) Ltd
23
Braybrooke Street, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka
Phone
+94-11-2300459/2300155
Fax
+94-11-2336325
Email info@lankaorganics.com
Website www.lankaorganics.com
UK branch
office:
Driftwood,
The Marrams, Sea Palling, Norfolk, NR12-0UN, England
Phone
+44-1692-598135; Fax +44-1692-598141
Email lanka.organics@tiscali.co.uk
