TUCSON, Ariz. — Feb. 14 is one day out of many to show your loved ones how much you care. What could be sweeter than caring for the environment by buying eco-friendly Valentines?

To help curb consumption and save resources on V-Day, buy organic chocolates and flowers. Also, give fairly traded gifts that are socially and environmentally responsible.

Valentine's Day is a big gift-giving holiday, and a lot of those gifts might have been made by child workers or underpaid citizens of foreign countries. For gifts made based off of humanitarian and moral standards, look into fair trade products.

“Many children are forced to work in plantations or fields at a very young age with no hope of education or even living with their family. The idea of fair trade tries to protect and promote more financial value to the farmers and child," said Joanne Currie, a founder of Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, which makes organic and fair trade chocolate.

Be wary when you're shopping for Valentine's Day gifts because many organic food producers don't participate in purchasing fair trade ingredients because of how complicated it is: international certifying agencies must visit all the cooperatives with products in various countries to make sure there is no unfair use or child labor involved in production.

Marketing manager Tex Dworkin of Global Exchange Jewelry said that since there is no fair trade certification for jewelry manufacturers, the best way to check if a company legitimately uses fair trade procedures is to find out if they are a member of the Fair Trade Federation.

Organic chocolates can also make a great green gift for your Valentine.

Producing organic chocolate is a tedious process that requires every person and facility involved to be certified as organic. But it's still well worth the time, said Currie.

“You may not necessarily taste the difference when eating organic chocolate, but having the power to know that what you are eating does not have any trace of chemicals or pesticides may make you feel better about what is going inside your body," said Currie.

Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates is based out of California, but the treats can easily be ordered online or over the phone. However, if you want organic chocolate that you can pick up in-person, Newman’s Own Organics offers a large variety of organic products as well which are sold in almost every state at a variety of retail stores.

Organic flowers are also fresh gift ideas. These flowers are grown without toxic chemicals using organic farming practices.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, not only are organic flowers grown in a way that doesn't harm the environment, they tend to last longer than non-organic flowers.

Organic Bouquet features a huge variety of organic Valentine’s Day flowers.

Keep up your eco-friendly Valentine's Day with cards that are fairly traded and made with recycled products.


Hallmark has a new line called the Product Red Line which features cards made from 100 percent recycled paper.

Hallmark is also contributing 8 percent of the proceeds of every purchase towards helping Africans with AIDS.

Betsy, an employee at a Tucson Hallmark store, said customers have been buying the Product Red Line cards for Valentine's Day with a lot of enthusiasm.

“I believe people care and with a variety of 150 cards from this Product Red Line alone, there are plenty to choose from,” Betsy said.

You can also skip the card altogether and save paper. Electronic cards are great V-Day greetings and give plenty of room for personalized love poems. Blue Mountain Cards and 123 Greetings both have selections of Valentine's Day cards.

There's a wide availability of eco-friendly products for Valentine's Day: Organic and fairly traded chocolates, flowers, and cards can help save your love and the environment. So, before you shop this year for red and white products, remember to consider your green options.