Nearly 80% of consumers prefer sustainable packaging, and consumers spent over $150 billion on sustainable products in 2021. Mindful Moon acknowledges these positive market influences and has sought to contribute to this shift from the onset of our operations. How exactly are we doing that, and what are the major trends affecting the tea industry?
Tea and Herbs
Let’s start with the core product we offer: herbal tea blends. When discussing herbs, a few ideas should be front of mind: the quality of the herbs, the economic impact of sourcing herbs from foreign countries, and the effect farming practices have on the environment. Let’s discuss how Mindful Moon’s operations interact with each facet of the herbal supply chain.
Herb Quality
While ingredient quality may not traditionally be considered an aspect of sustainability, we would argue it definitely should be. Herb quality is important because it affects the end-consumer in the most direct way. Businesses are built on trust. Tea and herbs are an easy, convenient, and tasty way to achieve a healthier lifestyle, and many companies present this idea while marketing the product. If the “healthy” infusions you drink have herbs treated with pesticides and other chemicals, then the whole sector suffers as a result due to a breakdown of trust in the product. Providing inadequate ingredients and adding artificial flavorings is a surefire way to erode the customer’s trust and hurt the industry across the board, even if it is profitable in the short term. This is the definition of unsustainable behavior: sacrificing the long-term for the short-term.
Mindful Moon’s herbs are sourced from the premier wholesalers in the United States, all of whom travel regularly to farms where the herbs are grown to inspect every step of the cultivation process. Our herbs are all guaranteed 100% organic, which means no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents used during farming. In addition, our wholesalers all utilize sophisticated in-house and third-party lab testing to ensure there are no chemicals present in the herbs.
Economic Impact
Part of being a sustainable industry is avoiding exploitative business practices that all too often create severe disadvantages for workers. Workers at every part of the supply chain, especially for agricultural products, are incredibly important to the overall success of the industry. Mindful Moon cannot control the legal and economic frameworks that exist in the large international tea trade, but we do choose to work with wholesalers who share our commitment to ensuring human rights and fair working conditions.
Specifically, all of the wholesalers with whom we work are Fair Trade certified, and many of them take measures beyond this certification to ensure fair treatment for workers across the supply chain. These measures include the Fair for Life program, which regulates a more equitable pricing structure for farm workers and even has development funds. The Fair for Life fund distributes a dividend to farmers who can use the money at their own discretion for new equipment, better living conditions, and/or infrastructure projects. Putting money directly into the hands of workers is an excellent example of putting your money where your mouth is, and Mindful Moon is happy to work with wholesalers who participate in these programs.
Farming and Environment
While large-scale corporate farming operations have their place in the world, we are happy that our herbs predominantly come from small and medium farm operations. Our wholesalers work directly with small and medium farms in foreign countries, which means they pay these farmers directly without an intermediary party taking a cut. This is ultimately extremely valuable to the farmers who can use these funds to further improve their quality of life and grow their businesses. Additionally, our wholesalers participate in programs that offer incentive structures to encourage responsible, quality-oriented farming techniques, enhanced worker safety, and socially responsible activities. By buying from wholesalers who sponsor farms to become Fair Trade certified, Mindful Moon is making a small but significant contribution to the positive shift from exploitative, environmentally unfriendly farming practices to a more sustainable business model. All wholesalers that source our herbs are also inspected along EVERY part of the supply chain, meaning workplace practices in the USA are audited regularly and must meet strict qualifications.
Packaging
When considering consumables to buy, it is very important to take into account packaging. Packaging materials are in constant contact with the food and drinks we put in our bodies. At Mindful Moon, we take very seriously both the environmental impact our packaging has, as well as the food safety of the materials we use. We are extremely proud to sell our teas and herbs in post-consumer recycled (PCR) flexible packaging, which benefits the environment by making use of materials that have been recycled numerous times. Using recycled material for our packaging means less energy in the packaging process and less resource extraction. PCR packaging translates to less waste in landfills and more efficient use of existing materials.
PCR is an important part of Mindful Moon’s packaging priorities, but so is quality and safety. Our tea sachets are made in America by a state of the art packaging company that is regularly audited for food safety. In fact, our packaging supplier has the highest Safe Quality Food (SQF) rating possible. SQF is a certification granted by the Food Industry Association, a leading, global food safety and quality certification and management system.
Conclusion
We hope this article sheds some light on how seriously Mindful Moon takes sustainability and quality. Even though we are a smaller operation right now, we will always strive to make the highest quality tea blends available, and we hope the trend of organic agriculture continues to grow.