Choose Organic This Valentine’s Day

Give your business partners, clients, secretaries and loved ones a sweet organic treat this Valentine’s Day. Innovative organic options in the chocolate and cut flower categories abound.

There are good reasons to choose organic in both cases. Conventional flowers normally have heavy applications of pesticides and fertilizers. This threatens low-wage workers’ health, in many cases, even before its “green” impact.

So source a quick certified pesticide-free bouquet on-line at Organic Bouquet or find a local option through Local Harvest’s organic flowers page.

Meanwhile, organic, fair-trade chocolate benefits the communities that grow it – contrasting the economic and environmental exploitation on so many large conventional cocoa plantations.

Ecuadorian Organics’ Pacari Chocolate helps the communities its crop grows in by paying a fair, living-wage price, with guarantees from one year to next. The cocoa is processed into bars right in the same communities, adding value locally instead of in a foreign country. The firm has also funded green projects such as solar-powered flashlights to replace disposable battery-powered ones, in communities where home electricity is a luxury and flashlights are a must.

Want to make your own, maybe with the kids? Then check out US firm Glee Gum’s Make Your Own Chocolate Kits. Made with organic cocoa, they’re just the thing to get your hands dirty with They are on discount until Valentine’s Day. Glee Gum also sells natural make-your-own chewing gum kits that are bound to be a hit with “kids” young and old.

When purchasing gifts this Valentine’s Day, be sure to spread your corporate and personal image of environmental and social responsibility while also spreading the love.

Filed Under 2009, Food And Beverages, Trends