Beckmans Decimate the Rain Forest
In the Paul Newman movie, Nobody’s Fool, his landlady, Jessica Tandy, constantly offers “Sully” a cup of tea:
Mrs. Peoples: “Would you like a cup of tea?”
Sully: “Nope, not now, not ever.”
Ruth and I drink green tea every morning. This is because green tea is supposed to have antioxidants that will keep you healthy. Ruth really does not like to drink her tea.
We have adapted the lines from Nobody’s Fool as follows:
George: Do you want your tea?
Ruth: I don’t want any tea now; I don’t want any tea ever.”
This morning I was taking the tea bag out of the pot. Ruth had started it steeping and said it was not ready so I had some time on my hands. I looked at the little tag and saw “80% Certified”. Certified? 80%? What about the 20%?
Because we like cheerful morning conversation I told Ruth the tea was 80% Certified. She of course wondered what our tea was certified for and what about the other 20%, just as I knew she would.
I decided to waste another minute and read the Lipton box. Our green tea is 80% Rain Forest Alliance Certified. I can only assume this means that 80% of the tea is certified to not have caused the decimation of rain forests. I am one who believes rain forests should not be decimated and was happy to find out that Lipton is anxious to tell me they also want to protect rain forests. The thing that continued to lurk in my brain was the 20% that was being decimated. Are they purchasing some tea from decimators? Or does tea in general decimate parts of rain forests?
Because Ruth only drinks about half of her tea she is wondering if that makes her a 10% decimator? I almost hate to throw any tea away, because of the decimation. I grew up feeling bad about wasted food because of the starving people in China. Now, apparently, I should feel bad about the wasted tea and its percentage of rain forest decimation. In these days of “green living” and the type of tea being “green” I would have to say this is a confusing bit of information.
George: Do you want your tea?
Ruth: I don’t want any tea now; I don’t want any tea ever.”
(03/15/2012)