Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Next only to water, tea is the world’s most consumed beverage. However, more than just a drink, tea also embodies cultural, economic, and political meanings through time and across cultures. There is an essential tie between the media and a meaning-making process. It is the media that often creates/carries the visions of health, tranquility, and environmental friendliness offered by tea. Media’s creation/recreation of this image persists even in the face of vast human inequalities and suffering and negative environmental impacts through the current practice of tea production under global conglomerates. First cultivated in China more than 5000 years ago, tea is now cultivated in more than 50 countries around the world, so forest cover must be cleared for this, and there are other environmental impacts, such as soil erosion, water contamination, and air pollution. Further, when monoculture farms are created for tea cultivation, natural predation systems are altered, allowing more insects to flourish and higher use of pesticide. The monoculture farm methods also contributes to habitat loss, threatening the survival of many species. Media’s mythic narratives naturalize and celebrate the current production practice while silencing the pain and suffering endured in order to gratify the very practice and consumption promoted by medium. The goal of this study is to analyze the infinite intersections of media and the conceptualization and consumption of tea and raise the public awareness of environmental impacts stemming from the current tea production process with the hope of gradual reduction of these negative outcomes.