Рецепт Mindful Flowers - Organic or Local
A cyclist loads up with flowers at the Union Square Greenmarket
A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love. ~Max Muller
Happy Valentine's Day gorgeous! V-Day is around the corner - love it or hate it, it's time to cuddle up with your cutie or make googly eyes at yourself ('cause even if you don't have someone special right now, there's no one more lovable than adorable you).
Don't flowers say "Je t'aime"? As a token of your love, you probably don't want flowers that cause secret misery by getting people sick, contaminating the soil and depleting water. Unfortunately, most of the flowers sold in the U.S. are grown in massive South American flower farms that do just that. Americans prefer large, perfect blooms at the cheapest possible price, so the farms step in with minimum wage labor and as many as 127 different chemicals (primarily pesticides and fungicides). The flowers grown are not native to the area and the water they require depletes the groundwater tables. Flower workers suffer from higher rates of rashes, headaches and birth abnormalities among their children from the highly toxic chemicals used.
Nearly all cornerstore blooms are from these farms. If you want to find innocent blooms, you can find flowers that are grown locally, grown organically, or purchase flowers that have been certified.
What to do - Gift Mindful Flowers
Grow your own and clip them. Martha Stewart does it! Start off by giving your loved one an organic plant.
Buy flowers from the farmer's market. You can ask the flower grower about his growing practices, and you know exactly where they are coming from. Since they were living just that morning or yesterday, they might even smell since they aren't being shipped weeks in advance.
Buy flowers from your local florist. You can ask about the specific blooms, and purchase the ones that are grown ethically. If there aren't any, tell the florist about your interest.
Buy organic flowers - if you can't find them locally, you can find them online at Organic Bouquet. No pesticides or fungicides went into these blooms.
Buy flowers certified by programs like Fair Trade, VeriFlora and the Rainflower Alliance. These programs provide environmental and labor standards in South America, and while they are not organic, they limit the use of pesticides and require workers to be treated fairly. Whole Foods has Fair Trade flowers.
Want to learn more?
What I ate: hardboiled egg, latte, quinoa, steamed baby bok choy + tempeh, 6 squares dark chocolate, rice crackers, hot chocolate, Mermaid Inn: flat bread, lobster + truffle mac and cheese, seafood stew, chocolate mousse, 40 oz. water
Exercise: Ran 4 miles, 15 min upper body weights