Child labor, war or pesticides for your Valentine?

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There was a time, long ago, when a lover would buy diamonds, chocolate or roses for his beloved on Valentine's Day with a clear conscience.

But life has become more complicated.

For some, the romance is being overshadowed by concerns that the diamonds may have financed wars, that the cacao beans were harvested by children and that the roses were kept perfect with mists of pesticides.

Let's start with roses, especially the red roses traditionally used to show passion.

"Most roses sold in the U.S. are grown in Latin America. And they are grown in a way that uses a lot of chemicals," said Rene Ebersole, a senior editor of the environmental Audubon Magazine.

"DDT is used," she added, saying that workers who applied the pesticides often complained of irritated eyes and other ailments that they blamed on the chemicals.

And what about soft, melty bonbons, dusted with cocoa powder?

Ivory Coast, which grows 40 percent of the world's cocoa, has a persistent child labor problem, according to the 2006 State Department Human Rights report, which was released in March 2007.