This program travels to tea estates in Sri Lanka, Kenya, India, and Bangladesh—some traditional, some fair trade—to expose unsafe work environments and labor exploitation. Finding little meaningful difference between fair trade and non-fair trade operations, questions arise: Are fair trade organizations such as the E.U.’s Max Havelaar Foundation being duped by tea growers? Or are growers doing the best they can in a brutal industry and a market that has yet to demand the quantities of fair trade tea that would create meaningful trickle-down profits for their workers? It is left to the viewer to weigh the arguments and decide. (Portions in other languages with English subtitles, 59 minutes)
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