Paterna-ma-lism

Alive and well:

The spat between Ethiopia and Oxfam on one side, and Starbucks on the other, first hit the headlines last month.

Oxfam accused Starbucks of asking the US coffee trade body, the National Coffee Association (NCA), to block Ethiopia's bid to trademark the three types of beans in the US.

Starbucks denied initiating the opposition to the trademark application, insisting it was a NCA decision.

While Oxfam accuses the Americans of acting irresponsibly and preventing Ethiopian coffee farmers from earning more money, the NCA warns that if Ethiopia gets the trademarks it may price its coffee beans uncompetitively high, thereby hurting Ethiopian exports.

And that's the NCA's business because why? What ever happened to that self-correcting free market about which we used to hear so much?