Last week I suggested shaking up Valentine’s Day by moving the emphasis from romantic love to love in general. I also made it clear that I am not against celebrating romantic love.
If you are in a romantic relationship, you and your loved one may choose not to celebrate Valentine’s Day. But some people love flowers, candy, and romantic candlelit dinners, and that’s okay. If you want a traditional Valentine’s Day celebration but would like to use your celebration to make a difference, consider these options.
Chocolates
If you really love the idea of a heart-shaped box of chocolates, make it slave-free. You’ll pay more, but you’ll know that you aren’t benefiting from slave labor in the cocoa industry.
Lucky Chocolates offers several options, including boxes of truffles and a box filled with toffees, cherry cordials, and cocoa almonds.
Mama Ganache offers half- or whole pound boxes of truffles. You can pick from several truffle collections, including vegan truffles.
Lake Champlain has three different heart-shaped boxes, one with just truffles and two with an assortment of chocolates. There’s also a heart-shaped box intended for giving to children.
Flowers
Those bouquets you buy for your sweetheart are often shipped over a long distance from countries like Ecuador and Colombia. Many women and children work in the floral industry, and the women are frequently subject to sexual harassment. In addition, workers are exposed to harmful pesticides. Fair trade certifications are awarded to farms that provide fair wages and good working conditions for their employees.
You can find fair-trade bouquets at Whole Foods stores and online at One World Flowers and 1-800-flowers.com. You may also want to see if locally grown flowers are available where you live.
Jewelry
An estimated 20,000 children work in the gold mining industry, and child labor, including forced labor, is a problem in the diamond industry as well. End Slavery Now notes that boycotting diamonds is not an ideal solution to labor problems in the industry, because some national economies depend heavily on mining diamonds. The organization suggests specifically looking for conflict-free diamonds if you plan to buy diamond jewelry.
You may also wish to consider purchasing fair-trade jewelry. Two possible sources for jewelry are Serrv and Ten Thousand Villages.
Cards
As I mentioned last week, I’m all for homemade valentines, and I don’t think they have to be stunning to be worth giving and receiving. But not everyone feels up to making a valentine. If you want to purchase a valentine for your loved one and also want to make a difference, consider looking for a card printed on recycled paper. This valentine can even be planted; it contains wildflower seeds. Of course, if you write a heartfelt poem to your sweetie in the card, they may not want to part with it!
While I believe in making a Valentine’s Day a celebration of love for all, I can’t say this strongly enough: giving people who love Valentine’s Day a guilt trip because you view it as a commercial holiday just comes across as self-righteous and puritanical. If you are married or dating and you and your loved one enjoy celebrating the day together, by all means, do it! Perhaps some of the suggestions above will inspire ways you can celebrate your love while also promoting justice and caring for the planet.