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More than three years ago, the OCA and its allies launched alerts against leading flower purveyors, like Dole, highlighting the fact that the majority of the flowers from these companies come from plantations in countries like Colombia, where workers put in as many as 18 hours per day and douse the flowers with toxic pesticides that aren't legal in the United States.

This month, Dole announced that its entire Colombian crop of cut flowers is now Florverde Certified, which requires better treatment of workers and more sustainable farming practices. Nearly half of Colombia's acreage is now Florverde Certified, which is positive news, considering 70% of cut flowers in the U.S. are from Colombia. This certification comes nowhere near meeting the criteria met by USDA Organic Certified products, but it is a step in the right direction, and is now so widespread and affordable, 300 million flowers sold this Valentines will have the certification. In other words, pretty much anyone who sells multiple varieties of flowers will have them. Although Floreverde Certification could stand to elevate its criteria, it has resulted in a 50% reduction of pesticides on conventional cut flowers and is beginning to improve working conditions.

Now OCA has shifted its focus to improving the evolving Florverde program, which needs to continue boosting its standards in protecting workers' rights. Keep the good news rolling by taking part in OCA's Valentine's Alert. Check out our buying guide to find ethical goodies for your sweetie, watch our Valentines video and take part in our alert to "Break the Chains of Toxic Pesticides and Farm Worker Exploitation".