To me there's no question that ft has made inroads to poverty in some instances and there are without doubt some excellent ft coffees around (as well as a lot of terrible ones) - at the end of the day I credit the customer with the ability to make informed choices not only about whether they choose to endorse ethically sourced coffees (including ft) - but also to vote with thier feet, afrerall it's what's in the cup that counts, and no amount of whimsical endorsement can desguise a crap coffee After all there are plenty of places that sell crap ft coffee, and their are plenty of coffee companies big sbs small who are willing to put out sub standard ft coffee products into the market place, in order to claw back some market share - but it it's not rocket science to be able to sort the shite from the shanolla, and a discerning customer is not going to undefinitrly endorse an inferior product At my last cafe we sticked a single origin ft coffee product as our main coffee - and sold in excess of 800 coffees per day - don't think the customers would've kept coming back if the quality wasn't there - which to me only goes to show that it can be done well if that is your intention Which is not to say that their is not more 'ethical' and great quality coffees out there - which potentially offer a better return to the farmer - but ft can also make an enormous impact when done properly
