It’s creeped around again, the bursting anticipation among women and the cold sweat and crippling feel of being pressured among men around the world. Valentine’s Day. Ugh.
Why has this become such a high-maintenance obligation of a holiday where year after year couples fight and families fall apart over some useless and wasteful overpriced and overadvertised crap? Okay, a bit dramatic but I guess you got my stance..
But in all honesty, after I accidentally made my partner feel bad for sending me vegan chocolates, this fake-of-a-holiday has been playing on my mind so I decided to throw myself into research, what’s actually behind this Hallmark-religion and how it ties in with veganism and environmentalism.
More than 124 million adults in the US celebrate Valentine’s Day and the biggest gift culprit is flowers. The cut-flower industry is currently worth over US$34 billion greatly thanks to the fact that they have moved production to a year-round suitable climate which coincidentally provides them with super cheap labour – countries like Ecuador, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The chemicals used to grow the flowers is another thing, the industry is actually exempt from pesticide regulations as the flowers are not edible crop and a fifth of the chemicals used in floriculture are banned in the US with Methyl Bromide being five times more harmful than CO2 (this was luckily phased out in 2005, still 18 years after signing the agreement..)
45% of Kenyan virtual water supply is being used for the cut flower industry so they have to import water-demanding edible crops like corn because they can’t afford to grow it there. If this isn’t the definition of a vicious circle then I don’t know what is.
Add to this all the waste from the land and the carbon footprint needed for transport as 30 cargo planes fly every day for a month leading up to the day, between Ecuador-Miami AND Columbia-Miami to deliver roses. That’s more than 15,000 tonnes of bloody something that’s thrown in the bin after a week.
”The International Council on Clean Transportation crunched the numbers last year and estimated that those three weeks of flower delivery flights burn approximately 114 million liters of fuel, emitting approximately 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. ”
vox.com
…where’s that facepalm emoji when you need it?
So if you fancy Valentine’s Day and want to celebrate with blossoms, here are some not so unhealthy options:
America has a movement called https://slowflowers.com/ which is similar to slow food where you support local growers. I’m sure other countries have similar options.
Look for sustainable or fairtrade badges on bouquets.
Give potted houseplants.
Or pick flowers yourself, I would love that!
To be continued…