Anyone who has access to the New York Times online should check out
the story about heavy pollution in China's Henan province in the Sept.
12th issue. It's pretty hair-raising. When I look at maps of
tea-producing regions in China they don't correspond with this
particular region that the paper is talking about, but still...seems
(from the article) like environmental protection is so lax there that
I question whether "organic" really has any meaning, especially if the
water used to irrigate with (hypothetically speaking, that is) is
tainted.

From what the article said, seems like another Love Canal on a much
larger scale over there....


Melinda

As I wrote here before - it is almost a common knowledge now among
professional tea testers that air pollution in China slowly lowering the
quality of tea. The biggest factor (as they say) is that sun exposure is
diminishing because of that.
The environmental protection laws put heavy burden on the industry costs.
China now is in it's industrial age, like USA 50 years ago and there is no
way they will slow it down now. I am not a specialist at all, but I also
understand that the fact that Kyoto agreements were not signed by USA gave
everybody a good excuse to bail out.

Sasha.

"Melinda" wrote in message
om...
Anyone who has access to the New York Times online should check out
the story about heavy pollution in China's Henan province in the Sept.
12th issue. It's pretty hair-raising. When I look at maps of
tea-producing regions in China they don't correspond with this
particular region that the paper is talking about, but still...seems
(from the article) like environmental protection is so lax there that
I question whether "organic" really has any meaning, especially if the
water used to irrigate with (hypothetically speaking, that is) is
tainted.

From what the article said, seems like another Love Canal on a much
larger scale over there....


Melinda

Alex Chaihorsky wrote:
As I wrote here before - it is almost a common knowledge now among
professional tea testers that air pollution in China slowly lowering the
quality of tea. The biggest factor (as they say) is that sun exposure is
diminishing because of that.
The environmental protection laws put heavy burden on the industry costs.
China now is in it's industrial age, like USA 50 years ago and there is no
way they will slow it down now. I am not a specialist at all, but I also
understand that the fact that Kyoto agreements were not signed by USA gave
everybody a good excuse to bail out.

Sasha.


Kyoto gives China and India a complete pass, which is one of the reasons the
US left. Nex