The Fair Trade movement began in North America with small non-profit and church-affiliated organizations buying high-quality hancrafted goods from small cooperating groups of women, and bringing them directly to market in the U.S. and Canada. At the same time in Eurpoe, Dutch organization Max Havelaar began importing coffee from small coffee co-operatives in the South. The emphasis was on direct, long-term trade relationships with small, democratically organized co-operatives. The mere size of the organizations involved in these relationships acted as a guradian of integrity. Now that larger organizations with different core values are involved on both sides, some in the Fair Trade movement are worried that it will no longer be able to deliver on its promises to producers and consumers.

Equal Exchange, a pioneer and Fair Trade market leader in the U.S. since 1986, is trying to remind the newcomers to the movement of its heritage. The small vs. large producer dichotomy is most pronounced in the Fair Trade tea market, where 99% of Fair Trade tea is sourced from large plantations. In a move it says is "intended to catalyze changes in the tea industry", Equal Exchange announced on Wednesday the availability of seven new organic, Fair Trade teas sourced almost entirely from democratic co-operatives of small-scale growers in India, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Equal Exchange says it "seeks to demonstrate to both the tea industry and the tea-drinking public that small farmers, and their co-operatives, can produce a variety of excellent, organic teas."

Co-founder and Executive Director Rink Dickinson recently visited two of Equal Exchange's tea partners in India and South Africa, and described the new initiative this way:

Unlike with some other foods or beverages, the small-scale tea grower continues to be overlooked and is never thought about. Our goals are to put the small farmer back into the picture, create an alternative economic model with them, and to show the wider world just how wonderful their tea can be.

Equal Exchange will also show the wider world just how a large wholesaler such as itself can sucessfully source tea from many small cooperatives. De-centralizing production by working with small cooperatives will de-centralize wealth, which is exactly one end the Fair Trade movement has sought since its inception. I applaud Equal Exchange for reminding us all of that goal at this critical time in the evolution of Fair Trade.