“You’re Not Just Buying Coffee”: Ethical Consumerism in the Global Age

A Dissertation Synopsis

August 2011

by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.nickilcole@gmail.comwww.nickilisacole.com

Introduction

In recent years consumption of products marketed as socially and environmentally responsible has grown tremendously in the United States. This trend reflects spreading awareness of, and concern for, the social, environmental, and economic effects of the consumerist lifestyle. Taking the case of coffee, this study questions the popular assumption that such products are inherently beneficial, and seeks to identify the social significance of this phenomenon. This study is designed to illuminate the forces that motivate people to buy such products, and what they believe the outcomes to be. What values, desires, and senses of self does the ethical coding of products respond to and promote? What is expressed, produced, and reproduced through ethical consumption? To respond to these questions I analyze the narrative of ethically certified and branded coffee from its inception within the specialty industry, to its dissemination through the product itself, to its manifestation in the values, identities, and practices of consumers.

Background

Today coffee is the most widely traded ethically coded product on the market (Renard and Peréz-Grovas 2007). This is due in part to the fact that it was the first product to be treated this way (Raynolds and Long 2007; Renard and Peréz-Grovas 2007), which makes it an ideal case for studying the practice of ethical consumption. In the United States, the world’s second largest regional consumer of coffee after Europe (ICO 2011), half of the adult population drinks coffee on a daily basis (NCA 2007). While ethical coffee comprises only a small portion of total coffee consumed in the U.S., consumption of it has skyrocketed over the last decade.1 In a leading industry report, Pierrot and Giovannucci

1

1 For the purposes of this study, “ethical coffee” refers to any coffee that is certified or marketed as socially responsible with regards to environmental impact, and the labor and living conditions of producers. This includes Fair Trade, Organic, Rain Forest Alliance, Bird Friendly, Shade Grown, Sustainable, Direct Trade, and Farm Direct, among others.

Sign inThe Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Santa Barbara. Photo by author, 2007.

wrote, “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” (2010: 3). Between 2000 and 2007 sales of Fair Trade certified coffee--the most widely known and consumed model of ethical coffee--more than doubled annually in the U.S. (Grodnik and Conroy 2007). This is due in large part to the inclusion of large corporations like Walmart and McDonald’s into the mix. Far from the niche beverage it was ten years ago, ethical coffee is now mainstream. A telephone survey conducted in 2007 by the National Coffee Association found that 61 percent of respondents were aware of the concept of ethical sourcing, 52 percent were aware of Organic certification, and 27 percent were aware of Fair Trade (NCA 2007).

Research Methods

This research was conducted over two years in the cities of Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara. These four locations were selected because together they represent the base of contemporary production and consumption of ethical coffee. Their coffee histories and roles in the evolution and growth of the specialty coffee industry are deeply entwined. Since this study is designed to track the narrative attached to ethical coffee from import to consumption, across these locations I conducted interviews with those working in the industry, performed content analysis on the product and its point of sale, and interviewed and surveyed self-identified consumers.

I spoke with people employed in various positions within the specialty coffee industry in order to reveal the standard approach to and intent of ethical sourcing. In total, I spoke with 29 people including: 1 importer, 2 buyers of green coffee, 11 owners (coffeehouses and roasters), 5 marketers, 4 coffeehouse managers, 3 baristas, and 3 non-profit sector employees.

Content analysis of product packaging, marketing materials, and in-store displays was executed to illuminate the narrative attached to the product by the industry. In total, I analyzed 146 pieces of data representing 53 companies and organizations. This sample includes coffee companies large and small, independents and chains, importers, roasters, grocery stores, and coffee-related NGOs like TransFair USA, Oxfam International, and Sustainable Harvest (a non-profit coffee importer based in Portland).

To understand the values, identities, and practices that constitute ethical consumption today, I conducted interviews and surveys with consumers. I distributed recruitment flyers at over 250 coffeehouses across each location. In total, I interviewed 32 and surveyed 144 people. This sample population is mostly white, middle class, college educated, younger adults (average age of 32.5 years), who range from centrist to left politically.

2

Research locations. Created by author, 2011.

Findings

Industry InterviewsThe findings show that the intent and practices of ethical sourcing within the specialty coffee industry differ little from the traditional model of free-market capitalism. Interviews with those employed in the industry reveal that desired improvement of coffee quality, and the long-term sustainability of the supply of it are the primary motivating factors. Subsequently, improvements to coffee producing communities and producer quality of life are merely fringe benefits of these industry goals. While they do harbor concerns for the environment, for the lives of producers, and for the state of coffee growing communities, the interventionist, neoliberal development logic that shapes their approach and practices reproduces the status quo more than it challenges it.

Packaging & Marketing MaterialsThrough content analysis I found that culturally and racially essentialized depictions of producers, and exoticized depictions of place dominate the industry narrative. Simultaneously it casts coffee companies and consumers as saviors of the world’s poor. This narrative emphasizes romantic, happy images and descriptions of Latin American producers and their communities. This message eclipses the difficult realities of agricultural subsistence lifestyles. This dominant industry narrative sells the consumer a blissful, even enviable, image of life on the farm, and assures them that the purchase of such products changes the world for the better.

Consumer Interviews & SurveysI found that people bring a range of concerns to bear on their consumer choices, which cluster around environmental sustainability, social welfare of producers, and personal health. The majority of participants regularly purchase ethical coffee and select coffeehouses in part based on whether the coffee served is perceived as ethical. Given its history and market saturation, most are aware of the Fair Trade model, and many conflate it with the concept of ethical sourcing. They define ethical trade against popular conceptions of places within the “Third World” or “developing world,” as a response to the conditions at origin, and as a solution to local problems. Ultimately these data show the practice of ethical consumption to be a strategy of avoiding personal culpability for social and environmental problems, and an opportunity to inhabit a moral subjectivity. While many are skeptical of the ethical claims made by companies, they consistently buy ethical coffee.

3

Package, Caribbean Coffee

Company. Photo by author, 2008.

Conclusion

The approach within the specialty coffee industry, and the narrative attached to the product, pivot on a logic of neoliberal development that is embedded in the long history of trade relations between the global north and south. Rather than presenting a significant departure from the norms of global capitalist production and consumption, the specialty coffee industry puts an ethical spin on these relations, and offers consumers the opportunity to feel that they are a part of the solution instead of the problem. While ethical consumption reflects critical awareness of social and environmental problems, by relieving the tension and anxieties that people feel as privileged consumers in a postmodern world, the practice has the dangerous potential to stymie critical thought and to discourage other efforts at producing global equality. By pushing a consumer-driven model of change that people are eager to espouse, the discourse of ethical capitalism further deepens the dependency of the global south on the consumer whims of the global north.

I finish with two important caveats. 1. While research has found that the Fair Trade model for sourcing coffee provides only marginal improvement to producers and their communities (Jaffee 2007), not all models are the same. The increasingly practiced model of “direct trade” or “farm direct” sourcing typically pays producers much more than Fair Trade prices, and features more equitable relations between buyers and producers. In order to make more responsible choices, consumers must challenge themselves to learn the nuances of the different sourcing models on the market. They can start by asking questions at the places where they buy their goods. 2. In a world of limited options, choosing the lesser of all evils is good practice. I encourage people to continue to buy ethical coffee. What I discourage is the belief that doing so will radically change the lives of producers, or significantly adjust the relations between rich and poor. To do so, we have to be willing to relinquish many of the privileges we enjoy as first world consumers, and this means stepping away from consumer-centric models of change.

References

Grodnik, Ann and Micahel E. Conroy. 2007. “Fair Trade coffee in the United States: why companies join the movement.” Pp. 83-102 in Fair trade: the challenges of transforming globalization, edited by L.T. Raynolds, D.L. Murray, and J. Wilkinson. New York, NY: Routledge.

International Coffee Organization. 2011. “Monthly Coffee Market Report January 2011.” ICO.org. Retrieved April 7, 2011 (http://dev.ico.org/documents/cmr-0111-e.pdf).

Jaffee, Daniel. 2007. Brewing justice: Fair Trade coffee, sustainability, and survival. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

National Coffee Association. 2007. “National coffee drinking trends 2007.” New York, NY: National Coffee Association.

4

Pierrot, Joost and Daniele Giovannucci. 2010. “Sustainable coffee report: statistics on the main coffee certifications.” Geneva, SW: International Trade Centre.

Raynolds, Laura T. and Micahel A. Long. 2007. “Fair/Alternative Trade: historical and empirical dimensions.” Pp. 15-32 in Fair trade: the challenges of transforming globalization, edited by L. T. Raynolds, D. L. Murray, and J. Wilkinson. New York, NY: Routledge.

Renard, Marie-Christine and Victor Peréz-Grovas. 2007. “Fair trade coffee in Mexico: at the center of the debates.” Pp. 157-179 in Fair trade: the challenges of transforming globalization, edited by L. T. Raynolds, D. L. Murray, and J. Wilkinson. New York, NY: Routledge.

5