Drinking Tea to Save the Planet / Thought Leader Spotlight on Theresa Lieb
The Regenerative Tea Brand Numi (41st) Edition of the Negative Foods Newsletter
[Theresa Lieb is in this week’s Thought Leader Spotlight - scroll down!]
Tea, after water, is the most consumed beverage on earth (3 billions cups per day!). Like all big global industries, the tea industry has its problems, which include deforestation.
Numi Tea, founded in 1999 by a brother and sister team, is a tea business that can guide other tea companies to a better future. Numi, one of the first 30 companies to be certified as a B Corporation, sells teas that are USDA certified Organic, and in most cases certified Fair Trade.
I spoke in December with Jane Franch, Numi’s Director of Strategic Sourcing & Sustainability. I came away deeply impressed with the achievements of Franch and her colleagues, and the culture of Numi.
Provenance. In most food categories with commodity inputs, food brands often have no connection to, or knowledge regarding, the farms growing their raw materials. Numi traces nearly all of its tea back to individual tea estates, which are mostly located far from the United States. Numi understands that, if you want to be responsible for your supply chain emissions, you have to know the elements of your supply chain, even if it is global and complex.
A Regenerative Agriculture Starting Point. The growing of tea on the tea estates of Numi’s supply chain are regenerative agriculture operations; the growing activities draw down carbon from the atmosphere on a net basis. This is possible because the tree leaf bushes are perennial plants (lasting 60 years each), the estates do not till, use mulch in an organic system, and use cover crops and grow under shade canopies. Numi’s tea estates are agroforestry operations that feed their soil biome. This is net positive agriculture.
Measure Impact. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Numi measures its carbon emissions carefully, which gives it a roadmap to becoming a regenerative company.
Reduce or Eliminate Emissions. A cup of tea is not made at the tea estates. For measuring emissions, Numi accounts for its processing, transportation, manufacturing, packaging, and even the boiling of water in the homes of consumers. Numi has reduced emissions by powering their facilities with renewable energy, by introducing compostable tea wrappers (14.3 metric tonnes of virgin plastic are now being displaced annually), and with many other initiatives.
Offset w/ Quality Programs. Notwithstanding efforts to reduce and eliminate emissions, Numi’s emissions from activities other than growing tea exceed the negative carbon footprint of growing tea. For its remaining emissions, Numi buys offsets, via the Carbon Fund, that protect amazon ecosystems.
Carbon Labeling. Carbon labeling will be the key to leveraging consumer demand to improve the carbon footprints of food brands. As a recent example, Norwegian online grocer Oda saw sales of red meat decline when consumers were informed of the respective carbon footprints of their purchases. Numi will start printing carbon labels in 2022 on the bottom of each pack, explaining total emissions for one tea bag, broken down into categories. This will give Numi a competitive edge in the marketplace, encouraging other tea companies to follow suit.
Other food brands should follow Numi’s model: Trace raw materials, source from farms following regenerative agriculture practices, measure emissions, reduce and eliminate emissions, offset remaining emissions with quality offsets that draw down carbon, and provide consumers with carbon footprint labels.
While researching this edition of the newsletter, I was inspired to purchase an electric tea kettle (better than my natural gas stove kettle) to reduce the emissions associated with my tea consumption. I’m now buying Numi tea in bulk that I steep with a tea ball. I’ve fallen in love with Numi, and I encourage you to give it a try!
Thought Leader Spotlight: Theresa Lieb
Theresa Lieb (She/Her) is a Food Systems Analyst at Greenbiz & the VERGE Food Conference Chair
What are the top three changes eaters can make to reduce carbon emissions?
Eat plant-based, avoid wasting food and buy tropical products like coffee and chocolate from companies with transparent, deforestation-free supply chains. Then, convince others to do the same and vote climate-friendly politicians into office at all levels of government.
When it comes to foods that sequester carbon:, what are the hottest products?
I’ll put a caveat first: We need to be careful when making carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative claims in food (and everywhere else). It’s extremely challenging to get there – especially without relying on offsets. As such, I think it’s more useful to talk about foods with low carbon footprints. My personal favorites are: coffee blends from Dean’s Beans that are bird-friendly certified, Nowadays plant-based chicken nuggets and brazil nuts. Brazil nuts are special because the trees only thrive in intact rainforests rather than being grown in plantations. Buying brazil nuts directly incentivizes local and often indigenous communities harvesting them to protect the Amazon from deforestation which in turn keeps carbon in the ground next to many other social and environmental benefits.
What’s your favorite story from 2021?
I lead the food program at VERGE, which is GreenBiz’ flagship climate tech conference. We produced a series of videos illustrating over and under-hyped trends in climate tech. In my video, I made the case for investing more in legumes instead of regenerative meat. Our audience really loved that – it’s short and fun but was still educational for many folks.
In terms of my articles, I’d recommend a recent piece analyzing how sustainable the catering at COP26 in Glasgow was. It debunks some common myths around climate-friendly eating – like focusing on local foods – and provides lots of practical tips for event organizers large and small.
What are your predictions for 2022?
Here are my top three:
We’ll continue to see a rise in alternative proteins across many segments: Plant-based foods will keep growing. If we get lucky, we’ll see the first cultivated meat sales in the U.S. (Upside Foods and Wildtype are just two companies in San Francisco that are getting their manufacturing plants ready) and consumers will become more aware of protein produced with fermentation technology.
There will be more heated debates around regenerative agriculture and related carbon sequestration claims – especially when it comes to beef.
Low-carbon ocean foods will gain traction. In 2021, a range of tasty kelp products rose in popularity and consumers became more aware of the environmental benefits of eating small forage fish and bivalves (mussels, oysters, clams and scallops). Investment firms such as S2G Ventures have also started ocean-specific funds. Overall, this will likely accelerate innovation and increase the scale of regenerative blue food production.
Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlieb/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlieb/
Food Weekly newsletter: https://www.greenbiz.com/subscribe-food-weekly
Column: https://www.greenbiz.com/theresa-lieb
For Your Consideration:
Norwegian Consumers Ditch Red Meat After Carbon Footprint Is Printed On Oda Grocery Receipts
Could Regenerative Agriculture Increase the Nutritional Quality of Our Food?
The dietary dilemma: food adequacy vs. planetary health
Beef has a sustainability problem. Is this the year the industry finds a fix?
The views in this newsletter belong solely to Paul Lightfoot (and not to BrightFarms or other organizations). This newsletter accepts no advertising. Learn more about this newsletter at https://paullightfoot.substack.com/about.