In the News

U.N. Panel: Valentine's Day Rife With Labor Issues

New York Sun
02/14/2008

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations may have the perfect excuse not to buy chocolate or flowers for your loved ones on Valentine's Day: labor rights issues in the cut-flower and chocolate industries.

At "Valentine's Day Flowers and Chocolates: To Give or Not To Give" — a panel organized by the world body's Department of Public Information — several speakers are expected to tell reporters today that both industries are rife with exploitation and rights violations. In addition, the panelists will also explain what they think love is all about.

Behind Colombia's flower trade

BBC News
02/14/2008

Colombia, one of the Latin American countries where Valentine's Day is least celebrated, is paradoxically perhaps the country on the continent with most at stake in the event.

For the country's flower industry, it marks the sales peak of a trade which earns $1bn (£500m) a year.

For employee rights groups, 14 February is designated as the International Day of Flower Workers, a chance to raise awareness about alleged poor conditions faced by the industry's 99,000 workers...  

Valentine’s Day gifts leave a bitter taste

Financial Times
02/14/2008

Labour rights campaigners will take some of the romance out of Valentine’s Day on Thursday by warning lovers that their traditional gifts of flowers and chocolates are often bought at an intolerable cost to those who produce them.

At a briefing hosted by the United Nations, they plan to highlight the suffering of farm labourers in Africa and Latin America, some of whom work in near slave conditions to supply goods to a ­predominantly western market.

Cocoa made sweet without child labor

Marketplace
02/14/2008

Doug Krizner: Get set you love birds: To mark Valentine's Day this year, you'll shell out more than 17 billion on cards, flowers -- and of course, the chocolate. More than half the chocolate -- or rather, the cocoa used to make that chocolate -- comes from West Africa. It's a region where child labor -- and even child trafficking and slavery -- is well documented.

Flowers for Sale

Policy Innovations (Publication of Carnegie Council)
02/14/2008

Valentine's Day is here with storefronts festooned pink and red. Why not run out and buy a friend, a spouse, or a lover some organic or imported roses?

If My Fair Lady were set in today's London, Eliza Doolittle's roses would likely come from Colombia or Kenya. The traditional flower market is a thing of the past. Flowers are now imported from all over the world, creating trade-offs for the ethical consumer... 

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