The Green Valentine

Flowers, chocolate, jewelry, and many delicate items are perfect for Valentine gifts as we usually know. But there are dark secretes behind these charming gifts. For example, you might purchases a box of chocolate on the shelves still using child labor. Or you might purchase your pesticide-laden bouquet of roses from a local flower store. This year, the Valentine's Day is much more meaningful if you add some thoughts. You can actually purchase organic flowers or chocolate, or you can buy fair trade products as your Valentine's gifts. Here is some useful advice for you to shop your green valentine gifts.

Chocolate
Many sugar and chocolate plantations have the issue of using and forcing child labor. As a savvy customer, you can avoid this problem by purchasing the fair trade certified cocoa and sugar chocolate such as Ithaca Fine Chocolate's Art Bar or Dagoba's Dark Chocolate Covered Cocoa Nibs. Another reason to buy certified organic chocolate is that it reduced the pesticide load on the planet. The study shows that conventional cacao requires pesticides and it is not good for our earth. You can buy Sweet Earth's Valentine Gift Bags made with organic, fair-trade certified and vegan chocolate; Equal Exchange's Mini Chocolate Basket, with fair-trade chocolates in a bamboo basket; or Organic Wine and Chocolate Set from Eco Express.

Flowers
Flowers are big thing in Valentine's day, especially it symbols romantic and love. However, there are some dark truths that you need to know. For example, U.S. imports its 70% of flowers from Columbia and Ecuador. And the flower growers in these places are usually working in poor working conditions and suffering from pesticide health problems like asthma, impaired vision or miscarriage. For female workers, they might even suffer from low birth weights and head circumferences. Therefore, you should choose agricultural products certified by Scientific Certification System's (SCS) VeriFlora label or Transfair Fair-Trade certified bouquets, or you can visit www.localharvest.org to choose the organic product in your local community. SCS VeriFlora's mission is to protect ecosystem as well as reduce packaging and energy. Transfair Fair-Trade is to pursuing economic freedom in the world by helping local workers with fair wages to sustain their local economics.

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