In recent years consumption of products marketed as socially and environmentally responsible has grown tremendously in the United States, which reflects spreading awareness of and concern for social, environmental, and economic effects of consumption. 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.

To do so, this study analyzes the narrative of ethical coffee from its inception within the specialty coffee industry, to its dissemination through the product itself, to the cultural manifestation of it in the values, identities, and practices of consumers. Interviews with people employed at all stages of the specialty coffee commodity chain within the U.S. were conducted in order to reveal the approach and intent that informs models of ethical sourcing. Content analysis of product packaging, marketing materials, and in-store displays was executed to illuminate the dominant narrative attached to the product. Finally, to reveal the values, identities, and practices that constitute ethical consumption today, interviews and surveys with consumers of ethical coffee were conducted.

The 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 desired improvement of coffee quality and the long-term sustainability of the supply of it to be the primary motivating factors. Improvement to coffee producing communities and producer quality of life are merely fringe benefits. Content analysis found that culturally and racially essentialized depictions of producers, and exoticized depictions of place dominate the narrative. Simultaneously it interpellates consumers as saviors of the world's poor. Interviews and surveys of consumers show the practice of ethical consumption to be a strategy for avoiding personal culpability for social and environmental problems, and an opportunity to inhabit a moral subjectivity. While ethical consumption reflects critical awareness of social and environmental problems, by relieving tension and anxiety, the practice has the dangerous potential to stymie critical thought and discourage other efforts at producing global equality.