00:00In the UK, we drink over 100 million cups of tea a day, which is incredible.
00:05And we love it. It brings communities together.
00:07We often use it as a comfort or to help somebody out, you know, sit down, have a cup of tea, talk about things.
00:12But the reality is that the people that are growing the tea leaves behind our cup of tea often aren't paid enough.
00:18They work in incredibly challenging circumstances and conditions.
00:22And the price that they receive for the crop that they grow that goes into our cup of tea is just far too low at the moment, unfortunately.
00:28And that's having a real impact on their lives, whether they can afford their daily essentials, etc.
00:34So it's quite challenging circumstances for them right now.
00:37We're all feeling the pinch at the checkout with food prices up over 40% in the past decade.
00:41But behind every price tag is a supply chain.
00:44And for tea, that chain begins thousands of miles away with farmers now facing not just rising costs, but poverty, extreme weather and low pay.
00:52The reality is that that is making them have to choose between things that I think in the UK,
00:57hey, we just accept as being something we deserve to have and live with dignity.
01:00So they'll be choosing between whether they can send their children to school, whether they can put nutritious food on the table, whether they can access health care.
01:08Often the work that they do is unstable, so they don't have long term contracts.
01:12And, you know, I think we hear a lot in the UK about how being able to plan for your future is really important, having steady work, knowing that you can afford to plan for your family in the future.
01:22But the nature of the tea industry and the nature of the kind of work means that people aren't able to plan into their future, which is really important.
01:29And that is kind of the impact that this is having for them.
01:30We've talked a lot about inflation here in the UK, how much more we're paying for butter, beans and biscuits.
01:37But while we feel the impact at the tills, producers in places like Kenya are dealing with the same pressures without the safety nets we have.
01:44For some tea farmers, that means not earning enough to feed their families or send their children to school.
01:49So the knock on impact that we'll see is that we won't be able to have our tea.
01:53So we obviously love tea. We drink a lot of it.
01:56But there will be the very real situation that there just isn't tea to be able to be grown because of the impact of climate change.
02:02I mean, the reality is that we all rely on the same food system.
02:05And so when things go wrong on what feels like the other side of the world, it has a very real impact on us as consumers in the UK.
02:11The next time you put the kettle on, consider this. Your cuppa should be part of the solution.
02:15Campaigners say buying fair trade tea helps ensure farmers are paid fairly, treated with dignity and supported to cope with climate change.
02:23Because food inflation doesn't just hurt us, it hits the people growing it even harder.
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