{"id":16480,"date":"2011-02-14T02:39:53","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T10:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=16480"},"modified":"2011-02-14T02:39:53","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T10:39:53","slug":"this-valentines-day-green-is-the-new-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/this-valentines-day-green-is-the-new-red\/","title":{"rendered":"This Valentine's Day, Green is the New Red"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"tulips\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Crossposted from our sister site, Red Green and Blue<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Show her your love is sustainable… because on Valentine’s Day you care enough to say \u201cI love you\u201d in a way that also says you love our planet (and you want to make it a better place for our children).<\/p>\n

This is the biggest shopping day of the year for chocolate and flowers… go green this year instead of red!<\/p>\n

Say It with Flowers<\/h3>\n

Roses<\/strong>: Very romantic, very chic, and very, very bad for the planet.<\/p>\n

Why? Used to be that unless you lived in the deep South you couldn\u2019t touch roses in February. Then they started flying them in via refrigerated airplanes from Central and South America. Spectacularly energy-intensive AND pesticide intensive (and that\u2019s not even getting into the appalling labor conditions of the workers, often women and children, who prepare the blooms).<\/p>\n

Exploitation, poison and carbon-hoggery \u2013 doesn\u2019t that just spell romance?<\/p>\n

Orchids<\/strong>: Pretty, more local, but have to be grown in hothouses. Again, energy intensive.<\/p>\n

Tulips<\/strong>:\u00a0Along with other spring bulbs, these are generally more local. They\u2019re probably grown in hothouses as well, but for a much shorter time, so the energy involved is pretty low. And unlike roses, they provide color and greenery for weeks. Go Dutch for Valentine\u2019s Day this year!<\/p>\n

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Seal the Deal with Chocolate<\/h3>\n

Ah, cacao<\/strong>. Food of the gods, choc full of those wonderous theobromines \u2013 brain chemicals that not only scream \u201cromance\u201d, but also spark it.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to worry about shipping as much in this case, since most cacao is brought over by the boatload, and ocean shipping is the least-energy-wasting method of transport. But there are other considerations.<\/p>\n

Not all chocolate is created equal. Some of it is endowed by its creators with all kinds of extra stuff that\u2019s not so great for the planet (or your waistline) \u2013 including dairy (often from energy-hogging and polluting factory farms) and the worst of all possible sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup (grown from those lovely Monsanto GMO seeds).<\/p>\n

And Fair Trade chocolate guarantees your sweets aren’t soured by exploitation (much of conventional chocolate is made with pretty nasty\u00a0child labor<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Avoid the fancy boxed candies you see in the store\u2026 they\u2019re pretty, but they\u2019re also pretty run-of-the-mill. And you want to indulge your love in something special, don\u2019t you? Like the\u00a0Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates<\/a> pictured above.<\/p>\n

As with all foods, organics are (nearly always) better from an energy standpoint, since they avoid energy-intensive petrochemical fertilizers. And organic farming actually returns carbon to the soil and sequesters it, rather than spewing more out into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

So go organic this year, for a sweet that will make your sweetie say \u201coooh!\u201d instead of \u201coy!\u201d<\/p>\n

More Valentine’s tips:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n