Need another excuse not to celebrate Valentine's Day?

Besides the fact that Valentine's Day breeds unrealistic expectations, exploits our guilt, makes the lonely even lonelier, and makes us spend money we don't have and consume things we don't need, it's bad for the environment and for workers. Commercial flowers are the most toxic and heavily sprayed agricultural crops on Earth. Flower-industry workers, in nations like Colombia and Ecuador, often young women, are routinely abused and exploited. Forty percent of the world's chocolate comes from Africa's Ivory Coast, where child slavery is widespread and starvation wages are the norm.

If you must celebrate Valentine's Day, show your sweetie you really care by buying Organic and Fair Trade Valentine's Day chocolate and flowers. Then send a message to corporations that make record profits on Valentine's Day by means of toxic pesticides and labor exploitation (Nestle, M&M's, Wal-Mart, Dole, and Hershey): http://www.organicconsumers.org/valentines/alert.htm.

To learn about the issues and find organic and Fair Trade chocolates and flowers near you, visit http://www.organicconsumers.org/valentines/