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When I was a
kid, my mom would put Valentine's Day presents on the
breakfast table before we left for school. We might get
a little Whitman's candy sampler and some lip gloss, or
perhaps something unrelated, like a pair of socks or a
plastic lizard.
Now, as an
adult, I’m still trying to figure out the right way to
celebrate this day with my husband. One year, I made
dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant, but it felt
too forced and kind of clichéd. The next year, I made a
last-minute raid on the grim selections left at the
drugstore. Last year, I made a card out of magazine
pictures, but my husband just thought I was being a
cheapskate. So I am approaching the day again with some
dread.
Young adults
are apparently the driving force behind Valentine’s Day.
According to the
National Retail Federation, people between the ages
of 25 and 34 spend the most money on Valentine's Day,
shelling out an average of about $164 each. Men spend
twice as much as women.
Total retail
spending on the holiday is expected to approach $17
billion this year.
All this
suggests that love and romance are thriving, and that
people are literally investing in their relationships.
And although I am ultimately just another one of the
millions of consumers spending money on Valentine’s Day,
I am also focused on the social justice aspects of two
of this holiday’s classics: chocolate and roses.
Not-so-sweet chocolate
Seventy percent of the world's cocoa is grown in the
war-torn region of West Africa, where the industry
thrives on child labor and the profits fuel violence. An
estimated 284,000 children work in West Africa,
200,000 of them in Ivory Coast. Unfortunately,
market forces are only increasing the demand for cocoa
and thus for child labor. Sometimes children work
alongside their parents and still attend school, but
many do not.
While industry giants drag their feet on ensuring that
their cocoa is not produced by child labor, demand for
fair-trade certified chocolate is growing, and the
industry is learning valuable lessons from the success
of fair-trade coffee. At a fair-trade certified cocoa
cooperative, child labor is prohibited and the farming
methods used are better for the environment.
Additionally, these co-ops are independently monitored
and are expected to make contributions back to the
community. Fair- trade chocolate still makes up less
than 1 percent of the $13 billion chocolate market, but
sales and profits are growing rapidly, and the
certification makes a real impact on farmer’s lives. It
can mean the difference between being able to send a
child to school or not.
I plan to sit
back on Valentine's Day evening and savor some
fair-trade certified dark chocolate. My Valentine's Day
consumer consciousness is not over though: Flowers,
another wonderful, ephemeral expression of love, come
with a downside too.
A rose is a
rose is . . . toxic and carbon emitting?
When a dozen long-stemmed red roses arrive at my
office, for the moment I am giddy and excited. But later
I can’t help but think about the fossil fuels that were
burned to transport them all the way from South America.
I keep that thought to myself because I don’t want to
offend my husband, who thoughtfully surfed the Internet,
entered his credit card number at an online flower shop,
and pressed send. I’m lucky that my husband thinks to
send me flowers, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if instead
of going to his computer, he’d walk to a local florist
with an organic greenhouse using only the fossil fuel of
the rubber on his shoes.
Most people
don't realize that flowers, just like vegetables, are
best bought from local, organic sources. More than 70
percent of cut flowers sold in the United States are
grown in South America, where besides contributing to
carbon emissions, they are grown with pesticides,
herbicides, and fungicides that are restricted in the
U.S. because they are highly toxic to workers. Flowers
from South America are also infused with preservatives
to keep them from rotting during shipment. An estimated
two-thirds of Colombian and Ecuadorian flower workers
suffer work-related health problems, ranging from
stillbirths and miscarriages to impaired vision and
neurological problems, according to the International
Labor Rights Fund.
U.S. farming practices may be better,
but U.S. farms still use pesticides and fertilizers that
contaminate ground water and streams, which can have a
harmful effect on wildlife and human health. And the
pesticides don't stop at the farm: The toxins from those
flowers are released into the air you breathe in your
home.
But there are options. Ask your florist
for local or organic choices, or perhaps go for a potted
plant.
Fortunately, love itself is free of
global trade and market forces. There are unlimited ways
to show someone that you love them; just be creative. I
hope that some additional eco-consciousness is just the
creative boost you need.
Have a local, organic, fair trade V-day
every day!
1. Ask your date to commit to volunteering for a cause
you both care about.
2. Write a love poem.
3. Stay in. Set aside an evening for you
and your date to hang out and talk. Drink
wine
(responsibly) and enjoy your time together. If your
“date” consists of getting together with your best
girlfriends, do the same thing.
4. Check out a local showing of
The
Vagina Monologues. Proceeds from the play go to empower
women affected by violence all over the world.
5. Bake a fair-trade cake. For the
recipe of the
Divine
Double Chocolate torte in the photo above, go to the
Divine Chocolate Web site.
6. Use fair trade to tell the story.
Whether you bake cupcakes with fair-trade certified
cocoa for your co-workers, book club, or date, use the
opportunity to talk about how fair trade is improving
the lives of families and communities around the world.
7. Buy a
Hallmark card from the RED
campaign: 8 percent of net wholesale sales will go to the
Global Fund to help people living with AIDS in Africa.
Whatever way you choose to express your
love this Valentine’s Day, don’t overlook simple
gestures like spending time together or giving a
hand-written card. As a consumer, don’t forget to share
what you know about fair trade with others while doing
your part to buy fairly traded goods.
Valentine’s Day is once a year, but
affirming your relationships with yourself and others
can be celebrated every day.
Emily Davila works in the Lutheran
Office at the United Nations in New York City.
Divine Chocolate makes a difference
by Erin Gorman
Researchers have found that
American women appear to
crave chocolate more than women elsewhere in the world.
(I’d like to meet those other women; perhaps they just
haven’t had Divine Chocolate yet.)
But for women cocoa farmers in Ghana, chocolate is much
more than a craving. For the women of Kuapa Kokoo, a
fair-trade farmers’ cooperative and part owner of Divine
Chocolate, chocolate is the way to a bright future.
Fair trade means that farmers are paid a fair price for
their crops and receive premiums to invest in their
communities. An equally important part of Kuapa Kokoo’s
commitment to fair trade is the advancement of democracy
to empower farmers in the local and global markets.
Democracy makes it possible for the farmers of Kuapa
(45,000 members in 1,200 villages) to discuss how to
improve their communities in ways that benefit the
greatest number of people. In a world where cocoa
farmers are exposed to the vagaries of a market beyond
their control, farmers value the ability to speak up for
themselves, say what is on their minds, and set the
chart for their own futures. Democracy also requires
that both men and women take part.
Cecilia Appianim is a cocoa farmer from the village of
Asemtem in the Central Region of Ghana. She is also a
member of the national executive council for Kuapa Kokoo,
and she visited the United States recently to help
promote Divine. She explained the importance of women
taking part in this way:
“Fair trade has helped us a lot. Because of fair trade,
women can come out boldly and take part in every event.
Before, it was not like that. Before, we would stay at
home and watch the men. And we would work with our
husbands and they would take the money, put it in their
pockets, and when it came time to buy food or pay school
fees they would say the money is gone.
But Kuapa has opened our eyes to see that everything
should be 50-50. So if a man has one vote, a woman has
one as well. If the men come together to make a
decision, then the women are there to take part as well.
So now we are empowered, and the men, they cannot cheat
us again.
Also because of fair trade, we have many projects for
women. We make soap, t-shirts, batik. We grow other
foodstuffs and sell in the market and then put some
money into the credit union for hardship times or to pay
our children's school fees.”
Valentine’s Day is approaching, and we hope that you
will celebrate with Divine Chocolate. Women’s History
Month follows in March. So, women, as if we need a
reason to eat more chocolate, think of Divine as more
than a way to satisfy your cravings. Your support is a
contribution to democracy and the empowerment of women
around the world.
Divine Chocolate is co-owned by the farmers of Kuapa
Kokoo in Ghana. Lutheran World Relief is an investor in
Divine and enthusiastically supports the sale of Divine
Chocolate through the
LWR Chocolate Project. You can
also purchase Divine Chocolate through LWR.
Erin Gorman is the CEO for Divine Chocolate.
Feel like making a Divine Panna cotta dessert? Check
out the recipe on the Tip
jar page.
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