[...] being "ethical" is an additional selling point to increase their price. In the free market, selling price is not determined by the material costs of producing the item, but by the highest price consumers will pay. Value is not an inherent characteristic--even petroleum is only valuable inside of a certain social framework. The social construction of "sustainable" and "natural" as desirable characteristics serves to create a new immaterial value that can sell items at higher prices even during an economic downturn--utilizing consumers' good intentions to perpetuate the system that gave rise to the problems in the first place. So long as capitalism remains the law of the land, any actual benefit to chickens or Brazilian coffee harvesters can only last as long as it is profitable.