Wildly presumptutous

Regarding the May letter suggesting that fair trade is “not in the interest of (small) growers.” I am not surprised that The Economist magazine is critical of fair trade. The global economic community continues to blindly extol the virtues of “free market” capitalism, yet this system is failing farmers around the world, particularly those in developing countries.
I know some coffee farmers in Nicaragua. Under the free market, these full-time coffee farmers do not make enough money to send their kids to elementary school. Most live in homemade houses of mud and tin with no running water. It seems wildly presumptuous of us to tell these farmers that receiving a better price for their coffee is “not in their interests.”
What are their options? The local and global market is flooded with subsidized corn and cotton from rich countries, making these crops even less economical. from an ecological standpoint, coffee is an ideal crop for many tropical areas because is grows best under the shade of forest trees. “Crop diversification” as suggested by The Economist would likely mean deforestation of hillsides and erosion. fair trade can provide just enough extra income to keep coffee farmers on the land rather than moving to the urban slums.