A Review of Ethical Consciousness (EC) and Organic food Choice: A Ripe opportunity to communicate with the market
Abstract: Ethical consumption is a phenomena reflected by consumers all across the world. The issue of sustainable development and sustainable living has the idea of sustainable or ethical consumption at its core. Organic food is an important constituent of the “ethical basket”. Consumer attitude towards Organic food has been found to be generally positive but there is an attitude-behavior gap as the adoption of Organic food is very slow in India. This study explores the crucial role of Ethical Consciousness in influencing the consumer choice. Explaining the discrepancy in consumer’s behavior it is stated that the many individuals,
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The issue of ethical buying includes the reference to environmental issues (Ethical Consumerism Report, 2011; European Commission, 2011; IGD, 2007; Trudel and Cotte, 2008), recycling issues (Autio et al., 2009; Laroche, Bergeron, and Barbaro-Forleo, 2001; Straughan and Roberts, 1999; Sudbury-Riley, 2014; Thøgersen, 1999; Vicente and Reis, 2007) and social justice and human rights issues (Auger et al., 2003; Ethical Consumerism Report, 2011; European Commission, 2011; Golding, 2009; Trudel and Cotte, 2008) with special emphasis on worker exploitation (Brenton and Hacken, 2006; Eckhardt, Belk, and Devinney, 2010). Besides these main issues the concept of ethical consciousness also includes the issues related to animal welfare (Megicks, Memery and Williams, 2008) and local community initiatives (Carrigan et al., 2011; Grau and Garretsen Folse, 2007; Mattingly and Berman, 2006) and also any other initiative that is good for society, environment, humans and animals at large. The conscious refusal to buy/boycott products (Carrigan et al., 2004) and services because they are damaging to the environment (Papaoikonomou, Valverde, and Ryan, 2012) or because they are made by companies that lack social responsibility (Creyer and Ross, 1997; Klein, Smith, and John, 2004; Kozinets and Handelman, 2004) also comes under the purview of ethical …show more content…
and the usage and charity is growing its market share rapidly(Simms, 2003).Through various information sources and changing markets consumers are becoming more and more aware of ethical consumption(Harrison et al., 2005).The impact of boycott activity, pressure groups and other related type of consumer activism is also on rise (Auger et al., 2003; Harrison et al., 2005).There is a remarkable shift in the mindset of people from materialistic approach to a more holistic approach making people more socially and environmentally aware as well as responsible (Hemingway and Maclagan, 2004). In fact, it is found that the scenario is changing worldwide. Fullerton et al. (1996) conclude that consumers do have moral values and they do not tolerate ethical
In this paper, I am going to discuss and explain my opinions on why company Q is or is not socially responsible. Company Q recently closed a couple of stores in high crime areas. Company Q also started offering very limited health conscious and organic products. The local food bank has contacted Company Q requesting day old food for donations. Company Q has declined the donation request due to possible fraud by its employees and has started throwing the food away.
Despite the increase in organic buyers, the majority of people do not know how to merely interpret what the word organic even entails. The United States Department of Agriculture enforces and regulates the labeling of organic products, namely food products (cornucopia.org). In addition to the elusiveness of organic foods, organics are apt to be more expensive than conventional food; this is because instead of a huge manufacturing plant, one would be receiving their food products from a small farm (where a small amount of food is being grown and harvested). People choose to argue that organic food is far better for you than conventional or natural food; however, there are only minute differences between the two. Stephanie Watson, an executive editor of Harvard’s Women Health Watch, states:“The researchers discovered very little difference in nutritional content, aside from slightly higher phosphorous levels in many organic foods, and a higher omega-3 fatty acid content in organic milk and chicken” (Harvard.edu).
I originally thought about the word organic as fruits and vegetables picked freshly from the branches of a tree and packaged into stores and chickens wandering large fields, I realize that it is not that simple. Michael Pollan traced some of his organic purchases back to their sources and discovers that there are organic feedlots, organic dairy cows whose lives are not any nicer than the conventional, and organic “free-range” chickens whose only access to the outside world is a small door in their shed, which is only open for about two weeks. “The organic movement, as it was once called, has come a remarkably long way in the last thirty years, to the point where it now looks considerably less like a movement than a big business” (Pollan 138). My thoughts now on organic foods at supermarkets such as Wegmans and Walmart is that the animals aren’t treated as great as conventional foods. I’ve realized that the extra cost of organic that I pay is largely because of the transportation.
C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2015).Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases (10th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage. O 'Sullivan, Arthur; Sheffrin, Steven M. (2003). Economics: Principles in Action. Upper Saddle River, New
The consumers have the ability to increase the environmental sustainability. When National Geographic researches about this issue, it got the statistic from many consumers around 18 countries (para.4.5). So it found a few of American consumers able to live sustainably, and they feel not so much guilt. In the contrary, the consumers of Chains and India promote to live sustainably, and they feel more guilt (para.6). However, the people cannot live sustainably without awareness about the sustainability and
Many people choose to eat only organic because it’s said to be healthier but when compared to non-organic food the difference is slim. Regardless people continue to buy organic products. People get emotionally connected to
Conscientious Consumer Being a conscientious consumer is a growing act in today’s time. More and more people are switching to this for many reasons. I am using two different sources to inform you further on a conscientious consumer. The first article is Andrew Leonard’s “Black Friday: Consumerism vs. Civilization.” This article really intrigued me when I read it, for the reason of it opening my eyes more to how more ethical I could be, and how many people around the world are today.
The growing concerns of consumers about sustainable products and services lead to legislative amendments and to new products and services that follow the regulations or have a pre-emptive role (Slavova, 2014). The purpose of legislation is to protect the consumers by set prices for consumer goods. Therefore, there will be better quality products, more choice and innovation, all of that is for consumers own benefits. Consumerism influences people’s characters causing poverty.
Introduction This case study explores the acquisition of the Body Shop, which is one of the largest franchise cosmetics companies in the world, by L’Oreal. The main concentration of the case study aims at investigating the impact on business ethics and corporate social responsibility by the concentricity of the Body Shop and L’Oreal and how the general attitude and buying behaviour is distorted in the course of this acquisition. L‘Oreal being the big conglomerate in the cosmetics industry acquired the Body Shop International which is comparably small but having iconic brand of environmental and socially responsible concerns, on 17 March 2006, through a covenant of $1.2 billion. The combination of two brands in a newly formed conglomerate implies a combination of values, principles and associations that might affect a company’s appeal. The verity that L 'Oreal 's acquisition of the Body Shop provides plenty of potential growth opportunities is undeniable; nevertheless the question of how well the acquisition sits in the group of the world 's largest cosmetics company is another matter.
Some people feel very strongly about what they eat and put in their bodies as well as how farming methods affect our environment and therefore buy organic products. Others do not feel that this is relevant and are not influenced by this research and continue to buy inorganic products,
Organic Food In the society where people are getting more concerned about one 's health organic food has become a widely spread and followed by many people tendency. Organic food is believed to have better impact on person 's well-being and not to cause harm to people and the surrounding world due to its ecological nature. The debate that has been recently developed around this topic cannot be solved easily since both supporters and their counterparts provide reasonable arguments supporting their positions. However, to get into the problem and find the answer to a question that concerns many people it is necessary to identify organic food at first.
Organic Food. It is the thing we’ve been drinking eating for decades but when does it stop. It might. If we don’t take our asses and eat some organic food we could be looking at a foodless future. And i understand that it’s not cheap.
Furthermore, it is noted that customers, particularly from developed nations like UK, France and Italy are more and more concerned about their health and the report on individual health expenditure over the last decade by OECD (2011) has confirmed that. The report shows that customers are becoming more inquisitive in the type, nature, origin and the processing method of materials in which, apparel and clothing firms uses in producing their product. Thus, demanding for transparency and accountability. Consequently, many customers have gone green and they are persistently advocating for sustainable and ethical activities of firms (Johansson, 2010; Pookulangara
Consumerism intrudes with the workings of society by overthrowing the standard judgment wish for an adequate supply of life 's necessities, a steady family and solid associations with a manufactured continuous journey for things and the purchasing power with little respect for the genuine utility of the item purchased. In today’s World World, there is a high level of consumption which has been described as a major threat on sustainability. Even though consumerism has positive effects like motivating people to work harder in order to improve their social status and well being, it has adverse effects on the environment and the social aspect of life. Consumerism, according to the new Oxford English dictionary, means the preocccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods. Sustainablity, on the other hand, according to the ‘brudtland report’ was broadly defined as Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.