You can consume ethically under capitalism. Capitalism forces businesses to listen to their customers, so vote with your money! And with your actual political vote! And encourage others to do the same! Don’t expect everything to be perfectly exploitation-free.

Definitions of exploitation include “making use of and benefiting from resources” and “treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.” These are things that are natural to occur in a money-hungry capitalist society. But they also occur in power-hungry communist governments.

Being vegan is already a huge step, there is very bad treatment for the workers in slaughterhouses and other animal product industries, and of course there is very bad treatment for the animals. Buy local when possible. Avoid products that are known to be produced under forced labor/slavery. But stop beating yourself up over it, you are doing much more than most people!