...Equal Exchange has released an open letter to Larry Blanford, the CEO of...Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR)...that strongly encourages...[GCMR] to withdraw its support from...Fair Trade USA...Without input from stakeholders,...FTUSA abandoned...Fair Trade International, aka FTI...and loosened eligibility rules to allow large coffee, cocoa and sugar plantations to receive...certification. That would put [them]...in direct competition with the...small-farmer co-operatives...who co-created the Fair Trade movement and have been the core of Fair Trade for over 25 years....[The] 20+ other global members of FTI, including the farmer representatives, had overwhelmingly rejected [this proposal] previously...Equal Exchange, the small-farmer co-operatives, and many other[s]...believe these...acts by FTUSA gravely undermine the very purpose of Fair Trade and constitute a betrayal of the small-farmer co-ops...