Consumer Culture, Modernity and

Identity
Ethical Consumption in the Global Age: Coffee's
Promise of a Better World

Contributors: Nicki Lisa Cole

Edited by: Nita Mathur
Book Title: Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity
Chapter Title: "Ethical Consumption in the Global Age: Coffee's Promise of a Better World"
Pub. Date: 2014
Access Date: October 24, 2017
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
City: New Delhi
Print ISBN: 9788132111276
Online ISBN: 9789351507932
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9789351507932.n12
Print pages: 318-344
©2014 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of
the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
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Copyright © Nita Mathur, 2014

Ethical Consumption in the Global Age: Coffee's Promise of a Better World

Nicki LisaCole

Introduction: ‘You're Not Just Buying Coffee’

In the winter of 2006, I stood in a Starbucks coffeehouse in Santa Barbara, California, and
held in my hand a package of Guatemala Antigua coffee. At that time, I was a graduate
student enrolled in a seminar titled ‘Sociology of Knowledge’, for which I had just read
Edward Said's classic text, Orientalism (Said, 1978). Looking at the package, and taking in
the images and text that adorned it, I realized that I held a contemporary travel narrative, quite
similar to those Said had deconstructed in his book. With an artistic rendering of a
Guatemalan woman in traditional dress, a map of coffee growing regions around the world,
and a description of the terroir in which the coffee had been cultivated, Starbucks offered its
customers a glimpse into the life of the coffee producer. Additionally, the package presented a
snapshot of the relations of global capitalism. A side panel read:

We believe there's a connection between the farmers who grow our coffees, us and
you. That's why we work together with coffee-growing communities—paying prices
that help farmers support their families and improve their farms, and funding projects
like a health clinic in eastern Guatemala. It's all part of our commitment to
sustainable growing practices and an equitable relationship with farmers that allows
us to deliver superior coffee to you. By drinking this coffee, you're helping to make a
difference.

With this text Starbucks describes the basic relations of production and consumption, and
places an ethical frame around them by relaying its socially responsible business practices
and philanthropic endeavours in this growing region. Starbucks assures its customers that the
coffee is cultivated in an ecologically sustainable manner, and that the end result is a high-
quality product. Further, Starbucks interpellates the customer as an ethical actor, who by
virtue of a simple consumer choice facilitates social and economic change in a distant land.

Taken together, the images and text attached to this product struck me as a modern day
iteration of the colonial travel narratives that were the focus of Said's analysis. This narrative is
presented through the white tourist gaze, deploys imagery that appears ‘exotic’ to the viewer,
cultivates a sense of distinction between the American consumer and Guatemalan producers
and frames the capitalist relations between a northern corporation and southern producers as
a form of benevolent intervention into producers’ communities. In this narrative, consumers
are cast in the role of saviour, who, simply by purchasing the product, help suffering people
who are seemingly incapable of helping themselves.

Shortly after my experience in Starbucks, I came across a sign in The Coffee Bean & Tea
Leaf, another American coffee chain, which read ‘You're not just buying coffee’. I wondered,
what am I buying? The sign continued, ‘A portion of this sale is donated to help children grow
through education in communities worldwide’. It seems then, that those who purchase coffee
branded or certified as ‘the right choice’ purchase a certain image of a producer, a perceived
connection to that person, and moral consumer subjectivity. This phenomenon is not limited to
coffee. Today there are more and more products around us that are presented as ethical
options. A walk through most American supermarkets reveals a wide variety of organic fare,
free range and ‘cruelty free’ meat and eggs, sustainably farmed or wild caught salmon, and
‘green’ paper products made from recycled materials. We are inundated with advertisements

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for hybrid vehicles, sweatshop-free clothing and fairly traded goods of all shapes and sizes.
Companies small and large, from the local independent coffeehouse, to Chevron and
Walmart, tell us that purchasing their products is a vote for environmental sustainability, fair
labour conditions and global economic justice.

Because of the diffusion of ethically coded goods in the American marketplace over the last
decade, more and more scholars have turned their attention to the practice that has come to
be known as ‘ethical consumption’. I use the term to describe a set of practices that manifest
at the intersection of concerns about planetary sustainability, personal health, conditions of
production and quality of life of labourers. Some scholars prefer the term ‘political
consumption’, and frame the practice as a new form of political action, while others emphasize
a connection between consumption and civic responsibility, and thus favour ‘consumer
citizenship’. Those of us who use ‘ethical consumption’ emphasize the grounding of ethics in
everyday consumer practices (Lewis and Potter, 2011: 10). Further, from a research
perspective, I find it important to not presuppose the phenomenon to be a political act, or a
form of civic engagement.

What is sociologically interesting about the phenomenon of ethical consumption is that it

signals shifts in the cultural logic of global capitalism. Shifts in business practices and
sourcing models, and the messaging that accompanies these, indicate that the corporate
world has become hip to consumer concerns, and has re-conceptualized these concerns into
a new market of opportunity. With the diffusion of ethically coded products in the marketplace
came the mainstreaming of an ideology of ethical capitalism, and a discourse of ethical
consumption. Ethical consumption has risen dramatically over the last decade, which signals
shifts in contemporary American values, identities and consumer practices. This fact also
raises questions about the reproduction of the system of global capitalism, since the practice
reflects critical awareness of social, environmental and economic problems associated with
the system.

With the research presented in this chapter, I offer a culturally grounded analysis of ethical
consumption and its relationship to global capitalism. Through surveys and interviews with
consumers of ethical coffee, I illuminate the dominant approaches to practising ethical
consumption, and the personal and collective motivations that move people towards it. This
research, thus, reveals the ideology that organizes the practice, and advances understanding
of the contemporary cultural logic of global capitalism within the United States. While
consumerist lifestyles and identities are now spreading to regions of the world where these
have historically not dominated culture (Mathur, 2010), the United States, as the world's
leading consumer nation, continues to be a harbinger of trends in consumerism. If the logic of
consumerism is tipping towards ethics in the United States, it is important to understand why
and how, and what positive or negative effects might come of this, so that social scientists and
policy makers can shape the future of the practice.

Theoretical Debates Surrounding Ethical Consumption

When considering this contemporary trend, many scholars note that forms of ethical
consumption have existed for nearly as long as have consumer markets. However, there is
also consensus that there are differences in today's ethical consumption that render it unique,
and specifically situated within our contemporary historical moment. Lewis and Potter (2011:
5) point out that the ‘problematization of living’ common in contemporary Western societies,
and the address of it through consumer channels, is what distinguishes ethical consumption
today from prior forms. By ‘problematization of living’, Lewis and Potter refer to popular

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awareness in Western nations that there are problems associated with the consumerist
lifestyle that dominates social and economic life. People in these nations are increasingly
aware of the harmful environmental, social and economic consequences of global capitalist
production and consumption. Many now attempt to address their discomfort and anxieties
caused by this twenty-first century reality by expressing an ethical agency through consumer
channels. Because such concerns are addressed through consumption, Lewis and Potter
emphasize the ‘ordinariness of ethics’ that is expressed by this practice (p. 10). Bringing
ethics into consumer decisions is a sign that ethical concerns are now infused into everyday
life in Western societies, and have been mainstreamed into today's consumer terrain. Given
this fact, the central debate among scholars of consumption is whether the practice has any
real political purchase.

The most virulent critics of ethical consumption argue that it cannot even exist, is in fact
oxymoronic, in a capitalist society. Monbiot (2007) asserts that capitalism is inherently
unethical because it is premised on the exploitation of labour, which negates the existence of
ethical consumption. Bauman (2008) also views the practice as a contradiction in terms
because he reasons that a ‘society of consumers’ is inhospitable to ethical subjectivities.
Guthman (2008) found in her research of food politics and consumption in California that at
best, ethical consumption manifests as a neoliberal subjectivity that does nothing more than
provide the cultural logic for harmful neoliberal economic and development policies. Others
see the radical promise of ethical consumption, yet caution against the ability of the practice
to relieve liberal guilt caused by awareness of global social and economic problems through
market-based solutions, without effecting any real change (Cook and Crang, 1996;
Featherstone, 2011).

Some point out that what were initially ‘alternative’ models of sourcing and consuming have
been co-opted and watered down through processes of mainstreaming that folded
transnational corporations (TNCs) into the mix (Raynolds and Long, 2007). The inclusion of
TNCs afforded greater marketing power to ethical goods, often with the help of celebrities,
and thus raised their profile during the 2000s. However, Goodman (2010) points out that this
‘celebritization of development’ created so much demand for ethical goods that the shortened
commodity chain, the founding hallmark of ethical trade, was sacrificed for market growth.
Inclusion and growth has raised questions about the sincerity of ethical claims, and prompted
concern about the potential ‘green’ and ‘white’ washing of corporate business as usual.
Finally, some point out that the ‘responsibilization’ of individual consumers both justifies and
reinforces the neoliberal dismantling of social services and of corporate regulations, which
vanishes the responsibility of the state to protect human and civil rights (Littler, 2009).

Yet, for as much criticism of ethical consumption that exists, there are those who champion
the practice and its potential to enact social and economic change. Micheletti (2003) argues
that consumption can empower the average citizen to take responsibility for themselves and
their society. Because of this, she views the practice as a reinvention of politics and
democracy in the context of a ‘post-political world’ (p. 14). From her vantage point, ethical
consumption broadens the scope of policymaking by more readily including the concerns of
the general population. Viewed as political engagement, the expression of social and
environmental concerns through consumption pressures TNCs to be more responsible actors
on the global stage (Micheletti and Stolle, 2008).

Still, some find these claims hard to swallow. Low and Davenport point out that ‘business only
has to move as far and as fast as consumers want and there is little onus on business to
“create” change, internally or externally’ (2008: 325). Goodman (2010) critiques the model of

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salvation through market development on the grounds that it only works for those who can
produce something of value, like a pleasant image and reassuring narrative, in the eyes of
northern consumers. Further, some problematize that the logic of ethical consumption—do
good by consuming—serves to more deeply entrench consumerism as the cultural dominant,
as opposed to encouraging a critical dialog around its negative effects (Low and Davenport,
2008). To this end, Lewis and Potter (2011) distinguish between ‘consumption’ and
‘consumerism’ when weighing the merits of an ethical approach to purchasing. They point out
that those who assert ethical consumption is oxymoronic for its relationship to capitalism are
actually critiquing ‘consumerism’, not the practice of consumption. They conceptualize ‘ethical
consumption’ as a term that can apply to a range of practices that can operate in alternative
economic systems (p. 29).

Taking both sides into consideration, it seems that the crux of this scholarly debate is whether
ethical consumption operates within the normative system of global capitalist production and
consumption, or whether it operates outside of, and thus challenges, the system. The
question, then, is whether ethical consumption is merely an adaptation of consumer culture to
our contemporary moment, or if it is an attempt at reforming it. I see the pressing question as
one of consciousness. While above-mentioned intellectual critiques and affirmations are well
taken, there is, admittedly, a conspicuous lack of research that evaluates the cultural
resonance of ethical products, and interrogates the universe of knowledge that surrounds the
practice. To fill this void, my research with consumers of ethical coffee seeks to reveal both the
personal and social significance of the practice. I pose the following questions: (i) What
consumer values, desires, and identities does an ideology of ethical capitalism both respond
to and interpellate? (ii) What is expressed and reproduced through ethical consumption? (iii)
What is the relationship between an ethical consumer identity and the system of global
capitalism?

Background: Ethical Coffee in the United States

I use the term ‘ethical coffee’ to encompass a variety of sourcing models now practised by
coffee companies, large and small, within the United States, and to refer to any coffee that is
certified or marketed as the ‘right choice’ with regard to environmental and social concerns.
This loose definition encompasses both independent third party certification models, and
internally monitored, company-specific models of ethical sourcing. Today, the most widely
distributed, well known, and consumed model is Fair Trade certified (Barrientos et al., 2007).
TransFair USA, now Fair Trade USA, launched the label in the United States in 1998, and
since then it has become a standard bearer within the coffee industry, and a prototype for
certification of other goods. The power of its marketing campaigns has resonated with
consumers to such an extent that they tend to use the term to refer to ethical coffee in general
(Murray and Raynolds, 2007; Renard and Peréz-Grovas, 2007).

Beyond Fair Trade, other major ethical sourcing models include Organic certified, which is
commonly coupled with Fair Trade in the United States, The Rainforest Alliance certified, UTZ
certified, and 4C Common Code (Specialty Coffee Association of America, 2010). In addition,
many companies, particularly multinational corporations such as Starbucks and The Coffee
Bean and Tea Leaf, have their imports independently verified as ethically sourced (though not
certified), and also partner with NGOs on socially responsible initiatives in producing
communities (Grodnik and Conroy, 2007). Beyond certification, many smaller, independent
roasters and coffee companies within the specialty coffee industry employ internal, company-
specific sourcing models that are commonly referred to as ‘direct trade’ or ‘relationship coffee’.
Though not externally verified, such models feature transparent and very short commodity

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chains, long-term relationships between producers and buyers, use of a quality-based price
scale and an emphasis on helping producers improve the quality of their product.

Coffee was in fact the first consumer good to be surrounded by a framework of ethical
certification (Raynolds and Long, 2007; Renard and Peréz-Grovas, 2007), which no doubt
contributes to its current mainstream status in American society. In 2007, a telephone survey
conducted by the National Coffee Association found that sixty percent of American adults are
aware of at least one model for ethically sourcing coffee (National Coffee Association, 2007).
At its outset, ethical coffee in the United States was particular to the specialty coffee sector,
which is loosely defined as dealing exclusively in coffees of exceptional quality. In 2009, this
sector made 13.65 billion USD in sales, which equals about a third of total national coffee
sales (Bolton, 2009). Signalling both the desire for premium coffee, and the attractiveness of
ethical coding, the annual average growth rate of the specialty sector is four times greater
than that of conventional coffee within the United States, and was projected to exceed 18
billion USD in sales by 2012 (Bolton, 2009). And, due to its inclusion of TNCs, sales of Fair
Trade certified coffee more than doubled annually between 2000 and 2007 (Grodnik and
Conroy, 2007). Industry analysts Pierrot and Giovannucci (2010) reported that ‘no other
segment of the global coffee industry has grown as consistently and as fast as the one for
coffees that are certified as sustainable’ (p. 3). In fact, coffee is now the most widely traded
and consumed ethically certified product (Renard and Peréz-Grovas, 2007).

No doubt, it is the long, exploitative labour history of coffee production that made it an
appealing crop for the introduction of ethical sourcing and certification. This history is one of
colonial enslavement, indentured servitude on plantations and post-emancipation,
impoverished peasant farmers exploited at the hands of middlemen and large transnational
corporations (Pendergrast, 1999; Talbot, 2004, 2011; Topik, 2010; Wild, 2004). Because coffee
has been traded as a commodity, producers have faced the uncertainty of extreme price
fluctuation, and throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, have had neoliberal
development schemes imposed on them (Talbot, 2011). This history makes coffee not only an
attractive commodity for ethical treatment, but also, a prime case for a culturally grounded
analysis of ethical consumption. Because it is the most widely consumed ethically coded
product, it is likely to include a more diverse cross-section of consumers than other ethical
products on the market, and to include those who apply an ethical lens to other consumer
decisions. It stands to reason that a snapshot of consumers of ethical coffee is a reasonable
equivalent to a snapshot of ethical consumers in contemporary American society. And,
because it is primarily an import product in the United States, and is produced
overwhelmingly by people of races other than white, it is an excellent case for considering the
raced relations of today's global system of capitalist production and consumption.

Research Settings and Methods

This study was conducted between 2007 and 2009 in Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon
and in San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California. All cities are located along the west
coast of the United States, and were chosen because they represent the contemporary base
of both production and consumption of ethical coffee within the nation, and for their histories
as key sites in the development of the specialty coffee industry. Additionally, these locations
are ideal sites for research into ethical consumption because they are known for their popular
embrace of alternative lifestyles, and are oriented towards socially and environmentally
responsible politics and business.

To take the ideological pulse, so to speak, of ethical coffee consumers, I conducted surveys

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and interviews with participants across these locations. Thirty-two interview participants self-
identified in response to advertisements posted at over 250 coffeehouses. In the field I
approached patrons of coffeehouses and solicited survey participation, which yielded 144
survey respondents. Participants who completed the two-page survey responded to questions
pertaining to their knowledge of ethical coffee sourcing models, and their motivations for
patronizing the coffeehouses they do. With interview participants, I held one-on-one
conversations ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour in length. Topics included awareness of
ethical coffee, level of commitment to it, reasons for purchasing it, and understanding of how
ethical sourcing models affect producers. In addition, we discussed ethical consumption
beyond coffee, and their attitudes towards large corporations, small businesses and global
capitalism. Interview and survey data were then hand coded and analysed together to identify
dominant discursive and ideological patterns.

Overview of Sample Population

Participants in this research are mostly white, middle class, college educated, younger adults,
with an average age of thirty-two and half years old. Slightly more are married or partnered
than not, and about a third have children. Politically speaking, they skew from centrist to left.
About a third are religious, though most of them do not participate regularly in religious events
or observances. All are regular consumers of coffee, both at home and in coffeehouses. Most
regularly purchase ethical coffee, and select coffeehouses in part based on whether it is
served. Notably, nearly a third of interview participants stated that they choose to shop at
businesses that serve strictly ethical coffee, thus, eliminating ethics from the decision-making
process once they are in the establishment. Many overall exclude or avoid certain locations or
businesses due to an absence of ethical options.

In terms of general consumer concerns and awareness, a preference for local products and
purchasing directly from producers was expressed by a majority of participants. Some exude
an anti-corporate and anti-chain mentality, and prefer to support small, independent
businesses. About half prefer to buy organic products due to concerns for the environment,
and processes of industrial and large-scale food production. They express a host of concerns
related to ecological sustainability, including excessive fuel and energy consumption and the
importance of decreasing waste, particularly in terms of plastics, product packaging, shipping
and industrial pollution. Thus, many support producing with recycled materials, buying used,
and reusing and repurposing goods. In sum, they bring a wide range of ethical concerns to
consumption.

Research Findings

Clear trends emerged in interviews and surveys with consumers of ethical coffee. Participants
are critical of mainstream American consumerism, and this provides the basic impetus
towards ethical consumption. They express an awareness of the privileges they enjoy in
comparison to those who produce the goods they consume, and experience feelings of guilt
and responsibility because of this. These too serve as motives that coalesce into a dyadic
strategy of ethical consumption: do good, and avoid doing harm. Because producers exist in
very troubled communities in the American imaginary, participants articulate an interventionist
definition of ethical trade that seeks to correct injustices taking place in distant lands. But
despite their belief in the power of ethical consumption to effect positive social, economic and
environmental change, they experience nagging anxieties about its realities and potential. In
what follows, I rely on statements by interview participants to extrapolate these trends. While

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survey results are included in the description of the sample population provided earlier, they
are only included in the following section when specifically stated.

Attitudes Towards Consumption

In providing context for why they purchase ethical coffee, many describe problems of
mainstream American consumer norms and values. They recognize that American mass
consumption patterns produce negative consequences around the world, and consequently
feel a responsibility to be a part of a solution, and to the extent that they can avoid
reproducing the problem. Nearly half of all interview participants levelled overt critiques at
consumerism. Of those, many construed the problem as over-consumption, and bemoaned
the pull of consumer desires, like Kate who lamented the fact that ‘Things run things’ in our
society. Similarly, David described himself in juxtaposition to his perception of mainstream
consumerism. He said,

I don't think it's that important to keep up with the Joneses. I think having a nice
place to live, a good place to educate my children, access to health care, access to
public transportation and good roads, and a safe place to live are the most important
things.

What David suggests is there are things that he values above the lifestyle and image that
comes with consumerism, and they reflect the basic rights that citizens of the United States
are supposed to enjoy. Relatedly, some assert that the American standard of living is higher
than is economically sustainable or socially responsible. Karen explained that she had
recently had a conversation with her boyfriend about why people were not buying gasoline
when prices had spiked, but that they were still living their lives and getting by, and that
ultimately this situation was better for the environment. This observation prompted her to ask,
‘Would it really be that bad if people couldn't afford gas? Would it really be that bad if
McDonald's raised all their prices and people couldn't afford to buy it anymore?’ Karen's
observation and questions suggest that positive changes would come of Americans adjusting
their consumption habits in response to the rising cost of resources.

As a solution to this problem, many describe buying used goods and reducing consumption
as ways to help abate the problems they see in the world, like Kristin, who said, ‘It's the one
thing I feel people can do to curb consumption, and to not be a part of the problem of mass
consumption’. Kate explained that it is hard to find goods whose production didn't negatively
affect someone, so she consumes very little as a consequence. When discussing how she
came to a radical anti-consumerist perspective, Morgan explained that her adolescent
rebellion was a rejection of the way of life that surrounded her. She spiritedly communicated
to me her teenaged internal monologue: ‘Screw capitalism! Screw consumerism!’ Sentiments
like these are representative of participants’ identification of the problematic consequences of
consumption of resources, the waste that is generated by consumerism, and the often
negative health implications of mass consumer practices. Ultimately, participants critique what
they perceive as normal in the American context—the singular importance of goods as they
relate to image and lifestyle. They critique the over-consumption of resources, and assert that
normative American consumption is unsustainable and irresponsible. Importantly, they
position themselves as different from the norm, as a distinctly different kind of consumer, in
order to create space for an ethical consumer subjectivity.

Awareness, Guilt and Responsibility

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For those I interviewed, with awareness of problems associated with consumerism come
feelings of guilt and a sense of responsibility. Many conveyed this when they explained why
they purchase ethical products, like Morgan, who said that it is consumers’ responsibility ‘to
demand goods that are good for our conscience’. Lucia echoed this sentiment, saying ‘…
we're the one's buying it. If we don't buy it, they won't make it’. Connected to awareness of
the consequences of one's choices is recognition of one's positionality. Some state that it is
important to recognize the privileged position that they inhabit as US consumers, particularly
in relation to global producers of goods. Eddie explained it is important that people realize
they have a stake in producing social injustice. Similarly, Robert said, regarding the disparity
between the global north and south, ‘To have that kind of inequality, somebody else has to
suffer’.

Such statements reveal awareness of the economic and social connections between
Americans, and those who produce the coffee that we consume, and that these connections
often have harmful consequences for producers and their communities. This level of
awareness often leads to feelings of guilt. Thus, some explain that a sense of guilt and desire
to make reparations fuels their purchase of ethical coffee. Referencing the historical legacy of
‘various forms of imperialism’ in coffee producing nations, Carrie asked, ‘Don't we owe ‘em?’
Christopher drove the point home when he exclaimed in exasperation, ‘You can't tell suffering
people to just wait for the revolution to come, and you know, all of their problems will be
solved!’

These participants express recognition of injustice, and a sense of responsibility to address it

as consumers. This implies confidence in the power of consumption to be the solution to
problems identified, and to salve the guilt they feel. Ethical consumption is a solution that is
immediately available to them in their everyday lives, so they experience it as an immediate
act of change making. This is a gratifying experience, evidenced by the fact that many state
that purchasing ethical coffee feels good. Sadie said, ‘It makes me feel good. Like, I'm getting
the things that I need and I'm actually helping somebody in the process’. Evelyn said that
after a purchase she thinks, ‘This bag did somebody good’. Dean said that he ‘like[s] being
able to make a difference’, while Brenda said that now that her son is grown and out of the
house that she and her husband ‘have more disposable income to do things we feel good
about’.

Clearly, participants experience ethical consumption as a feelgood way of fulfilling their needs
through consumerism, which they view as otherwise problematic. Ethical products thus afford
participants the opportunity to avoid ‘bad’ consumer choices and practices, and allow them to
embody and express a moral consumer subjectivity. Ethical coffee thus responds to and
assuages, to a certain extent, the anxieties that participants feel due to their awareness of
global inequalities, and their culpability in producing them.

An Ethical Strategy of Consumption

Participants want their choices to produce good, not harm and suffering, and believe that
purchasing ethical coffee is a way to achieve this dyadic strategy. Kate put quite simply the
power of ethical coffee to achieve this when she said, ‘We provide livelihood to farmers by
drinking Fair Trade coffee’. Brenda, on the other hand, framed ethical consumption as
avoidance: ‘People are not suffering to produce the thing we enjoy’. Similarly, Robert
explained, ‘I wasn't worried too much about exploiting Ethiopian farmers until somebody
mentioned, ‘Hey, you know there is such a thing as not exploiting them’, and then I began to
get with the program’, while Abby said, ‘I just don't like people suffering, or people's lives to

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go bad because of my personal choices’.

This strategy of avoidance stood out in survey results too. Of the 114 respondents who
reported that they intentionally avoid certain coffeehouses, nearly 70 per cent listed an ethical
concern first. Whether consumers take a casual or thoughtful approach to purchasing, it is
clear that they believe in the promise of ethical sourcing models. In fact, many believe that
consumer choice is the only thing that matters to businesses, and thus the only thing capable
of changing business practices. Samuel pointed out that Brita, the popular purveyor of water
filtration devices, now recycles its filters because of consumer demand. Because they believe
in this model, about a third of those who specifically advocated consumer-driven change
stated that they are willing to pay more to make an ethical purchase, like Scott, who said, ‘For
me, it would be worth paying more money so that folks are getting their fair share of the
wealth’.

These statements reveal that the foundational logic of ethical consumption is to avoid harmful
consequences, and to promote good when making purchases. This strategy of avoidance
seems an extension of the tradition of consumer boycotts, but is also reflective of a history of
expressing identity through consumption. Participants support the concept of producing social
change through consumption, and so implicitly support the notion that positive social change
can be produced through the capitalist system. The immediate problems then from the
perspective of participants are unethical consumption, and greedy corporations who exploit
labourers and the environment, not the capitalist system.

The Coffee Producer in the American Consumer Imaginary

For consumers of ethical coffee, what makes coffee ethical is directly juxtaposed against the
poor and difficult conditions they imagine to result from the low wages and exploitative forces
and actors, which they know to be true in the typical coffee growing community. This popular
image of producing communities, and the suffering experienced within them, fuels the desire
to do good and avoid doing harm expressed by participants. For them, coffee can be labelled
‘ethical’ when it either avoids producing, or responds to, problematic conditions. They envision
coffee producers living in impoverished conditions that result from oppressively low wages,
exploitation by large corporate buyers, inept and corrupt local and national governments, and
political instability throughout their regions. They imagine that producers labour under very
poor conditions. Overall, they identify a complex and deeply troubled set of social, economic
and political circumstances that plague coffee producing communities.

Many cite bad labour conditions and underpayment as hallmarks of traditional coffee
production, like Roderick, who stated,

My assumption is that the conditions tend to be horrendous in less fair places. And
the wages would go hand-in-hand. If the conditions are bad, I'm assuming the
wages are bad. I think that conditions would horrify me more than wages … long
hours, children working.

Lucia, familiar with the struggles of farm workers in California, explained that she imagines
that the experiences of coffee producers is similar to that of field labourers who endure long
hours of back-breaking labour under the hot sun, only to receive low pay and abuse due to
their immigration status. She emphasized that agricultural labour is very physically
demanding, time consuming and typically under-compensated.

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How participants imagine conditions of labour at the site of production tends to manifest as in
conflict with labour laws within the United States. Yet, they tend to associate these conditions
with the parts of the world in which coffee is grown. According to David, ‘The worst imaginable
place in the United States is the Hilton compared to some of these places’. Some participants
explain that these problems are a result of internal conditions in coffee producing nations,
such as a lack of labour laws, inept or corrupt governments, and political instability. Using
coded language to describe the situation, Drake said ‘Coffee comes from a Third World
nation, from Central America. I'm sure that the farmers and labourers involved work hard and
are probably not compensated well for it’. Lily explained that coffee ‘[is] grown in really tough
parts of the world … places that are politically complicated’. These imaginaries of coffee
growing communities reflect common northern tropes that frame formerly colonized lands as
‘Third World’ or ‘developing’, which suggest that these places are unfinished, and deficient
when compared with the United States and other Westernized nations.

Within this conceptualization, internal governments and their leaders are often cast as
facilitators of bad conditions. Sadie expressed this when she said, ‘[The] governments don't
take care of people, quality of life is low, and governments cater to big US corporations’. Jim
explained, ‘In Colombia and Guatemala, they have unstable governments, problems with
revolutionaries battling counter-revolutionaries, civil war and innocents slaughtered’. While
Sadie connects the problems in coffee growing countries to the goals and actions of US
corporations, overwhelmingly participants conceptualize such problems as rooted in the
communities they describe, like Jim does.

Participants also fault exploitation of farmers by middlemen and large buyers. Scott invoked
the struggle of the Immokalee farm workers with Taco Bell when he explained, ‘[L]arge buyers
can bully farm workers because they'll work for less than minimum wage. They work like
indentured servants’. Pointing to another problem coffee producers experience as a result of
the power of large buyers, Christopher said, ‘The mainstream coffee market really serves to
isolate and pit farmers against each other’. Thus, despite awareness of their positionality and
privilege, they do not view problems in producing communities as embedded in a world-
system of capitalist production and consumption, but as a result of select bad actors within
those communities.

Notably, this popular imaginary of coffee producers and their communities paints them as
victims who presumably do not resist. Thus, the vision of coffee growing communities that
emerges out of the ethical consumer imaginary is one populated by disempowered peasant
farmers who are exploited by local political elites and buyers, and who suffer the
consequences of inept and corrupt governing bodies. These conditions are overwhelmingly
understood as particular to these places, and not connected to how we live in the United
States.

Ethical Consumption as Benevolent Intervention

Participants rely on several key factors to define ethical trade. First and foremost, they invoke
money to define it, using terms like ‘living wage’ and ‘fair wage’ to explain what makes
ethically sourced coffee distinct from the mainstream. Some discuss this in terms of profit
share, and many flag equity and a balance of power as necessary for ‘fair’ trade. Conditions
of labour also figure prominently in how participants define ethical trade, as is clear in the
previous description of how participants imagine problems within producing communities. In
what follows, I focus on two themes that encapsulate all of these concerns: the environmental
and economic sustainability of farms and communities, and producer quality of life.

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Participants explain that farm and community sustainability are important markers of ethical
sourcing, and are required for ensuring that producers enjoy a minimum quality of life.
Participants point to these relations when they state that a ‘sustainable livelihood’ is a sign of
ethical trade. It logically follows then that consumers believe that farm sustainability is directly
tied to environmental sustainability. Evelyn expressed this when she said,

… what I'm hoping for is that … the farmer on the picture … [is] getting good wages,
that they're able to grow their coffee in a way that makes sense to the soil, to the
area where the coffee is being grown, and that they're getting a fair price for their
coffee. And a fair price would mean whatever the margins are that would make sense
for them to continue their practices.

Others state that producers are better off when education is made available for children, and
when children are not required to work. Many point to availability of food and water, to
housing, and to good health and health care as conditions of an ethical situation. Participants
expect that with larger income, the ability to meet basic necessities of survival follows. Lily
explained that ensuring the availability of food, shelter, clean water and education ‘seems only
fair’. She stated, ‘If we're going to buy something from that part of the world, those people
would have the same things [as us]’. And, some connect quality of life directly to wages, like
Kristin who said producers should ‘Absolutely have the basic necessities, the human
necessities of life, shelter, education, food and water. Access to all of those. To have that be
guaranteed by the wage’. David explained how increased wages trickle down to bolster a
community: ‘By increasing the compensation for the employees and improving the working
conditions, it will provide them with additional funding which will bring additional services to
their communities to make life better for them.’

With these statements participants identify key elements that define ethical coffee sourcing
from their perspective: fair price and wages, equitable relations of trade, environmentally
sustainable growing practices and the resulting sustainability of the farm. These statements
also present a stark contrast to the popular image of ‘unethical’ coffee production offered by
participants: low prices and wages, exploitative relations of trade, concern only for production
volume and an impoverished, subsistence level existence. As they understand it, ethical
sourcing models respond to the problems that plague growing communities by paying more,
adjusting the relations and conditions of production and trade and ultimately, create thriving
communities that want for nothing. This model positions consumers as saviours, and offers
them the opportunity to inhabit ethical consumer subjectivity.

Anxieties and Contradictions

Those who participated in this research are not full-blown supporters, neither ideologically nor
practically, of ethical models of sourcing and production. About a third point out that they
have to protect their economic self-interest, and so can't do as much as they might like, given
the price premiums of many ethical products. Others explain that buying ethically can
sometimes require more time in research and travel to where such goods are available, and
so ethical consumption is sometimes more of a hassle than they are willing to tolerate.
Regarding this, Natalie said, ‘It has to be convenient. Life is so complicated anyway and time
is so short during the day, you do what you can in your little area’. When discussing his
concerns besides coffee, Roderick explained, ‘It's so big that there's really no way for me to
know where it's coming from in a timely way’. Describing that he hasn't achieved the ethical
consumer status that he would like to, Jake said, ‘In an ideal world my relationship to things

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would be more local, but I haven't gotten to that point yet.’

Some point out that models of ethical sourcing are steps in the right direction, though not
solutions for producers around the world. Scott pointed to the contradictions that exist in the
purchasing habits of ethical consumers when he said, ‘It's great that folks can go and buy
Fair Trade coffee, but what does that mean when they're buying a lot of products that there
aren't mainstream alternatives for, like socks made in Taiwan?’ Because of the limitations they
experience and the contradictions they see, some feel a sense of hopeless ambivalence
towards social and environmental problems, and recognize that their ability to make change is
limited. Reflecting on this, Dean said, ‘There's a point where it does become paralyzing’.

No doubt, these sentiments are fuelled by the scepticism of labels and ethical sourcing
models that nearly half of participants expressed. Many harbour concern that ethical claims
are more marketing ploys or forms of ‘washing’ than they are indicative of real changes to
relations of production and trade. Many also point out that labels have been co-opted by big
business and thus have lost meaning and validity. Regarding agricultural products, Michael
said, ‘Before it meant something certain, but now bigger farms are jumping on board and
bending the rules, using fertilizers that shouldn't be used’. Kristin revealed similar concerns:
‘It seems like the terms or labels have been watered down. I wonder how true Starbucks’
claims are. Now you can find organic Cheerios and major food companies are creating
organic stuff. How is it that it's organic?’

Concern for a lack of transparency of sourcing models is another key concern of participants,
who admit that they are not certain that they can trust the claims of the businesses they
patronize. Lance explained that the direct trade company from which he buys green coffee for
home roasting revealed some problems associated with the Fair Trade model in their monthly
newsletter. Of this, he said, ‘A lot of times the dollars really don't filter down to the actual
growers’. Similarly, Brenda admitted that she is sceptical that the model is as good as labels
make it out to seem.

With statements like these participants reveal the material and ideological constraints in their
lives that shape their ability and desire to pursue ethical consumption. Money and time are
limited resources, and they must protect their own economic self-interest and quality of life.
Their awareness of corporate bad-actors and mainstream co-optation has raised their
suspicions about the sincerity of the claims of those touting ethical business practices and
sourcing models. Some of them feel overwhelmed by the many ethical options on the market
and the multitude of global social and environmental problems that these options signify. Yet,
they consistently purchase ethical coffee, which suggests that despite their scepticism and
the contradictions they see in ethical consumption, they believe that consuming for change is
what they can do as individuals to make a positive impact on the world.

Conclusion

This research reveals that ethical consumers believe in the power of consumer-driven change.
They deploy a dyadic strategy of consumption that targets goods that are marketed as the
‘right’ choice, and avoid goods that are associated with corporate bad actors. They frame
ethical coffee as the ‘right’ choice because they believe it ensures fair prices to producers, fair
wages to labourers, provides for good labour conditions, an acceptable community-wide
quality of life and environmental and economic sustainability. Despite the scepticism that
some harbour for corporate claims, consumers read ethical coffee as an effective response to
the political and economic problems that they perceive to be endemic to ‘Third World’ and

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‘developing’ nations. Ultimately, they view ethical coffee as a tool of empowerment and
change. As consumers with resources and knowledge, they are empowered to change the
lives of producers through their consumption choices. They inhabit a moral consumer
subjectivity.

Yet despite recognition of problems in coffee growing communities, the situatedness of these
within a system of capitalist production and consumption, and the history of this system, goes
unrecognized by the vast majority. Disparities in wages due to unjust hierarchies of race and
nationality are overlooked, and so it is presumed that because ethical sourcing levels the
playing field of the global economy, it gives producers the resources they need to succeed
within it. Ethical consumers are unaware that not all producers welcome this kind of
benevolent intervention. Many have resisted neoliberal models of development and aid
(Neilson and Pritchard, 2007), have objected to the inclusion of transnational corporations and
plantations in ethically certified sourcing models (Wilkinson and Mascarenhas, 2007), and
have expressed discontent with certification fees and standards imposed from the north
(Renard and Peréz-Grovas, 2007; Wilkinson and Mascarenhas, 2007). Often, producer
demands for more representation on the boards of certification organizations have gone
unheeded (Wilkinson and Mascarenhas, 2007). Further, the notion of ethical consumers
reaching in to southern communities to solve their problems vanishes the producer-rooted
origin of the Fair Trade system, which was called into being in Mexico as a counter force to
the neoliberal globalization of trade (Murray and Raynolds, 2007; Renard and Peréz-Grovas,
2007). The negligible economic in-the-pocket difference between conventional and certified
coffee is another reality not understood by consumers.

Given that most have only vague, surface level knowledge of how ethical sourcing models
operate, and the realities of their effects in coffee communities, consumer concern ultimately
manifests as well-intentioned reactionary purchasing. I see this as evidence of the successful
commodification of morality. By disseminating a narrative that features happy producers who
thrive due to the choices of consumers, the specialty coffee industry has successfully created
a market for morality. Together the discourse and imagery that surrounds the product
functions as a sign, in the Saussurian sense, of ethical relations of trade, which signals to the
consumer that all is well and they have done the right thing (Saussure [1916] 1983). For
these reasons I find it impossible to frame ethical consumption as it exists today as political
action or progressive social change.

That said, the genuine concern for the welfare of producers, for global justice, and for
planetary sustainability shine through as lights of hope in our contemporary culture. Implicit in
ethical consumption is a critique of the dominant relations of global capitalism and the
behaviour of large corporations. This is expressed through the construction of ‘villains’ in
consumer discourse on the problems of today's world, and is representative of heightened
awareness of the abuses of the system, against which some businesses are framed as
‘ethical’. Consumer unease with these conditions is expressed also in the guilt they articulate
over not doing more to be ethical actors, shaped by the real material constraints on their own
lives—making the ‘right’ choice often costs more. This is certainly a critical orientation.

The interviews I conducted with consumers, however, revealed that awareness of problems
often mushrooms to overwhelming proportions, which generates feelings of hopelessness and
ambivalence. For many, awareness is an unfolding process, during which know ledge of
corporate abuses builds up, in part due to the marketing of goods as ethical. As awareness
grows, so does their understanding of the social-systemic scope of the problem. For some,
this produces hopelessness because they feel that no matter what they do, problems will

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persist. This can result in an ambivalent orientation towards ethical consumption and other
politically effective modes of social change.

The act of purchasing an ethically coded good then, such as Fair Trade or ‘Farm Direct’
coffee, offers a momentary alleviation of the postmodern stress and anxiety that many US
consumers feel. When the situation seems hopeless, making the ‘right’ consumer choice is an
available action that resonates with immediacy. The product tells consumers that their act
starts a chain reaction of goodness that trickles down to producers in the global south. I
suggest then, that the anxieties and critical impulses that tip US consumers towards ethical
goods are dampened by the act of ethical consumption. This means that ethical consumption
of goods represents an adaptation of consumerism to our contemporary historical moment,
not a challenge to it, nor to the norms of global capitalism.

Despite this, I believe that hope lies in the unease, the anxiety, and the discomfort that
pushes consumers to harbour suspicions of the relations and conditions of production. But if
we are to make moves towards real social change and global economic justice, we must
embrace our anxieties, not assuage them through the self-gratifying channels of
consumption. To the extent that we opt for the simple fix of ethical consumption we fail to
actually confront the root of the problem that causes these anxieties—the system of
capitalism—and instead we reproduce the very thing that troubles us. We must confront and
marinate in our anxieties, allow them to trouble us, and then use them as motive to engage in
what Marcuse (1964) called ‘negative thinking’—the unthinking of the norms that limit the
possibilities for what social and economic relations can look like. We must meet the challenge
of thinking outside the iron cage of global capitalism. Only then can we imagine social justice
into being.

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125–137. New York: Routledge.

coffee
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producers
consumerism
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