ETHICAL SOURCING TO ENSURE SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY AND ELICITING MILLENNIAL PERSPECTIVES

Social responsibility, animal welfare, and environmental responsibility are essential practices in sustainably sourced products. The industry leaders in ethical sourcing and sustainable development are paving the way while the followers are lagging; how can the industry continue the upward trend in sourcing ethically and improving sustainability? Gaining brand loyalty and increase of sales while sourcing ethically and sustainably is the emphasis of this research, millennials as sample participants are projected to dominate the workforce by 2020. What are the millennials perspectives on integrating moral values to ensure ethical sourcing and sustainable development? Consumers are now more than ever aware of where products are sourced from, the treatment and living conditions of workers who grow the products, and the use of land without care of sustainability measures. The voluntary ethical sourcing can be linked to company who are moving towards caring for the environment and humanity thus ethical sourcing and maintaining the process has become essential and more especially the millennials who are the focus on this research are ferociously loyal to ethically sourced and sustainable brands. JEL: L60, L66, L15 N5, Q13, Q50, Q56, Q58, J43 M14, M16, D23, D8