Pooping On Your Valentines Day

Here are two headlines I can't compete with:
Child labour, war or pesticides for your Valentine?
"Every Rose Has its Thorn"

The first discusses the major human rights/environmental issues with the Valentine's Day big three: chocolate (child labor), diamonds (did you see Blood Diamond?), and flowers (pesticides and labor conditions).

The second article (actually a photo slideshow) explains the environmental impact of roses from South America. On the production end, the issues are the use of child labor, sweatshop/low paying conditions, use of hazardous chemicals (indoors!), and the overall air/land/water usage for the industry. ("[F]lower workers experience higher-than-average rates of premature births, congenital malformations and miscarriages," and were subjected to 70- or 80-hour work weeks in high season.") For their transportation, flowers are dipped in more chemicals (preservatives this time), placed in protective packaging, and then must be shipped via air and are then transported in refrigerated trucks. Then the retailers swaddle them in all things pink and heart-covered.

Fortunately, there is a way to go green this Valentines Day:
Organic flowers, (find out more here and here)
Organic lingerie
Organic chocolates (and here too, list of brands here)