Date of publication: February 4, 2009
Source: New York Teacher
Author: Liza Frenette
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Since Valentine's Day is about declaring love, it can be an opportunity for teachers to talk about the larger love found in social justice and human rights. It all stems from flowers.
About one-third of Ecuador's and Colombia's flowers are produced for Valentine's Day alone, which means workers are pushed to meet production quotas, logging up to 20 hours a day, at 250-300 stems per hour for harvesters, according to the International Labor Rights Forum. Because flowers are not consumed, safety standards are lower than they are for food.
"Flowers use far more pesticides than other crops," said Eva Seidelman, program assistant for the labor forum. Three of the pesticides used in Ecuador and Colombia are banned by the World Health Organization, she said...