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climate. An advantage in producing Afghan saffron is the ability to get it to the marketplace when it's fresh and the f lavor is more intense. Trade sanctions against Iran means saffron passes through many hands before it reaches the U.S. "Most commercial saffron is so old that it has no scent," Jung says. "You can smell ours from across the room." Impact More than 90 percent of the world's opium originates in Afghanistan. Farmers grow poppies out of economic necessity, not because they want to supply the drug trade, Jung says. The average yearly income is $500. Saffron, gram for gram, is as valuable as gold, considered to be the most expensive spice in the world. It is far more profitable for farmers to grow than poppies and does not interfere with wheat and barley crops, which they need to feed their families. "We bought two kilos from a farmer and paid him $2,000 per kilo; that's eight times his annual income," Jung notes. In 2014, Rumi Spice partnered with 11 saffron farmers. By 2015, more than 50 wanted to be part of the network. In one year, production escalated from 18 kilos to 100 kilos. Empowering Afghan women is another aspect of the business. Rumi Spice pays direct wages to 60 women, many of whom work from home, separating the stigmas from the crocuses. A kilo of saffron consists of hundreds of thousands of stigmas. "These women's families used to subsist on one meal a day," Jung says. "Now they eat more than two meals a day." Jung recently arranged to meet with high-end chefs at New York City restaurants who experimented with Rumi Spice saffron and were so amazed they immediately signed on. Michelin-starred restaurants that include Daniel, Blue Hill, and Gramercy Tavern feature it in their dishes. Jung's company started small, but revenue for the year is already up more than 400 percent. The Future Saffron has long been used to add a rich, golden hue to paella, risotto, and tea. Jung believes it has many more applications, such as saffron honey, saffron cheese, and saffron vodka. In addition to encouraging more farmers in Afghanistan to grow saffron, Jung's company plans to expand into sourcing other spices from the country as well. "We are open to partnerships," she says, pointing out that saffron is also known to be an effective antioxidant and antidepressant. "I think it could become the next quinoa or Madagascar vanilla." 2016 LEADERSHIP AWARD: CITIZENSHIP Linda Appel Lipsius, Co-Founder & CEO, Teatulia Organic Teas T aking skills she learned from her family's cleaning product business, Linda Appel Lipsius has not only helped create a thriving Bangladeshi tea company in one of the poorest parts of the world—but also brought literacy and math education to the workers. Inspiration In 2006, Lipsius was in the process of selling her family's Colorado- based company, Orange Glo (makers of OxiClean, among other household cleaning products), when a friend from Bangladesh asked for help with his family's tea estate. Lipsius was six months preg- nant with her first child and not sure how much she wanted to get involved, but the prospect sounded interesting. She told him she'd explore it and see what the opportunities were. "The more I learned, the deeper I got into it," she found. Soon, she and her friend, Kazi Anis Ahmed, co-founded Teatulia, sourcing organic tea leaves from a single-estate tea garden in Tetulia, a northern region in Bangladesh that's one of the poorest parts of the world. Lipsius, 44, had not worked in the specialty food business before but felt that her family's former company prepared her to produce and sell a premium, eco-friendly product. She had spent a year in Ireland and four years working in London where she drank and appreciated tea. "But I was not a hardcore, tea geek fanatic," she says. In general, she wasn't sure about Americans' thirst for tea, nor how much they cared about its sustainable sourcing from garden to cup. "Most folks don't even know where Bangladesh is, and it hadn't been known for producing high-quality tea," she says. "Anis and his family were ahead of the curve where the industry was going." Tetulia, Bangladesh was not only suffering from poverty, she learned, its land was drying up into a barren desert. Digging rocks (continued on p. 36) 34 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com