Would you rather hang out with your friends on this sometimes special/sometimes tricky day? Here are a few ideas for how you can share your love with the pals who lend you their shoulders (and who need your shoulder too).

• Host a tasting with chocolates or cheeses from around the world and pair with unique foods and wines.
• Check in with a long walk, a cup of coffee, hot cocoa, tea or just a phone call — stay connected with a little time spent face-to-face.
• Deliver care packages of homemade treats to their doorsteps with cards that share why you couldn’t live without them.
• Keep a bowl of fresh fruit at your desk or in the break room to share with sweet coworkers.
• Host a matchmaking dinner party for your single friends. Instead of nametags, enlist a friend or two to write interesting facts about your friends (or their sweet friend qualities) and tape them to their backs. Instant party conversations!

How about spreading your love outside? Here are some simple ideas for taking it to the streets and sharing your love with the ‘hood that you call home sweet home.

• Volunteer or donate items to a local soup kitchen, food bank or animal shelter.
• Unofficially adopt a stretch of road you walk or ride along and pick up litter — or organize a roadway cleanup.
• Renew your bird-feeding vows by cleaning and stocking your birdfeeder.
• Make a donation to a local nonprofit, library, museum or community garden.
• Plant a heart-shaped garden bed in your yard, filled with wildflower seeds.

What are your suggestions for showing your love to your friends and community this Valentine’s Day?

Our first day in Quito was an amazing introduction to a place, a culture, and a people unlike any other. The sheer geography at over ten thousand feet in the tumultuous Andes mountain range atop the equator gave the city a powerful and immense character. The region stretches across enormous valleys with drop-off cliffs, rivers and active volcanoes throughout. The land is green and dotted with concrete and cinderblock houses.

We were hosted by the Ecuadorian Fair Trade Association, a group of seven farms, all primarily focused on roses. We buy from six of the seven as a company and we are the only major grocery retailer in the states who purchases flowers directly from these farms. Roses are the heart and soul of Ecuador floral production, yet we learned that only nine of the 700 farms there are fair trade certified, highlighting the importance of broadening the marketplace for these roses, to increase production and ultimately put more dollars into the local community.

We traveled to two different farms, Agrocoex and Hoja Verde, both precariously located at the base of active volcanoes in a dense, green farmland with streams and waterways interlaced throughout. We spent our time inside their greenhouses and production facilities, as well as traveling to see the benefits of their community programs firsthand. Through their efforts they have initiated numerous projects, including education scholarships, home loans, school improvements, dental services, community computer centers, music education, laundry services and more.

Fair Trade Certification can be demanding on a business, both financially and operationally. The requirements are extremely detailed and the audits can take a large amount of time away from a normal work day, even if the farm only sells 25% of its flowers as certified. However, it became clear that in the world of Fair Trade flowers, social responsibility and worker empowerment are intimately intertwined with corporate philosophy across all layers of the business. The managers of these farms do not elect to be certified for the ambition of building new business, they do it because it is a core tenant of their belief system, it defines their vision for the company and it is the right thing to do.

On both farms the workers are organized as cooperative corporations, complete with president and secretary. There is no compensation for these roles, but they lead the group in shaping their community support while learning invaluable business skills in leadership, accounting and public speaking. The entire workforce meets as a general assembly multiple times per year to vote on proposed projects, with a simple majority needed to put a proposal in motion.

I would be deeply remiss if I did not also spend some time describing the beauty of these roses and the efficient, dynamic agricultural practices in use at all stages of growing, harvesting and production. In place on these farms were impressive irrigation systems, natural pest control methods, like spiders, and innovative rack systems for sorting and arranging the flowers. The blooms themselves were enormous, strong and breathtaking, expressing the care exerted at every step along their way into the shipping boxes that will eventually arrive at our stores.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to meet our growers firsthand and to witness the benefits of our Whole Trade program. Responsibility in global purchasing is a complicated subject, yet seeing the benefit of an affordable home loan to a struggling family or a quality education to a disadvantaged youth is a simple truth.

Since 2008, our Whole Trade floral program has put more than $2.3 million into community projects through the 10% premium. We have the ability to transform trade by voting with our dollars, and the impact can be substantial. My hope is that we can raise awareness for the importance of Whole Trade flowers and that we can all be a little more connected to the impact our purchases have on those at the other end of the supply chain.

I encourage you to add some color to your home on your next shopping trip and feel good about not only the beautiful blooms on your kitchen counter, but the families and communities of the growers who benefit from your choices.  And don’t forget this Valentine’s Day to share your love with flowers that make a difference, and tell us what supporting ethical trade means to you. Thanks for joining me.

Our journey began in Bogota, Colombia, home of one of our largest Whole Trade® growers, Elite Flowers. Despite working for Whole Foods Market, a mission-driven company with a commitment to supporting all of our stakeholders, it can be easy to discount the powerful positive impact a company can have on its workers, their families and the greater community in which they live. Yet we were lucky enough to see that impact in action with a brief glimpse into the community of Elite Flowers, their Foundation and their Worker’s Fund. Through it all I was inspired, impressed and dutifully full on delicious food (if you are ever in Bogota, you absolutely must try Ajiaco soup!). Elite is a large company with over 4,000 employees and the work they do is changing lives on a daily basis, both inside and out of the greenhouse walls.

The Elite Foundation was initially created to improve the lives of the employees’ children, who were largely left at home to be raised by the older children. The goal was to provide quality education, nutrition and expression through art and community. When we established our Whole Trade relationship with the farm, the foundation became the natural recipient for the 10% premium we pay over the cost of the flowers (pre-shipping) that goes directly into important community programs. As those dollars rolled in, Elite was able to expand their overall services and directly fund 150 new children in the program. But to truly understand the importance and impact of these dollars, we needed to see it in person.

Our first stop was the Chappala School, a nursery and pre-school, supporting children under the age of five who would otherwise be left at home. The school offers a full service program of transportation, healthy meals, art and education, as well as nursery services for their youngest members. The site itself was beautiful and engaging, an expansive property located along a river that was the childhood home of the owner of Elite. The Foundation is coordinated by Mario and Maria Eugenia, people filled with warmth and compassion, who actively convey their dedication in supporting the workers’ families.

Our next stop is Chicala, offering education for students age 5-10. Again, I was impressed to see the beauty of the facility and vegetable gardens as well as the quality and scope of the academic and artistic education. We were lucky enough to catch part of one of their performances, and the children were fantastic!

The Foundation also supports community programs for youth, both those with disabilities, such as the hearing impaired, and prominent at-risk groups like teenage girls. These programs empower the youth with a sense of community and the opportunity to create their own future, whether it is in college, trade or art.

Working in tandem with the Foundation is the Worker’s Fund, a collective supporting the workers in numerous financial ways, including assistance with purchasing a home. This is a program where Whole Trade has also had significant involvement. To date, our customers are directly responsible for helping 77 families buy their first home, many of them with challenging circumstances, such as being single parents or dealing with medical conditions. The sense of pride and accomplishment in these families was overwhelmingly heartfelt, and they eagerly invited us into their homes to share their achievement.

We left Colombia tired yet inspired by what we had seen. Next stop is Quito, Ecuador, where we’ll journey into the high altitude terrain of the Andes mountains to see some of the biggest and boldest roses ever. In the meantime, leave a comment below by Valentine’s Day telling us how flowers made a day better for you or someone you care about and we’ll donate a dollar for every comment to the Elite Flower Foundation as our way of sharing the love.

Flowers are a symbol of celebration and emotion; they convey feelings, life and vitality. They add color and warmth to our homes, and at the other end of the supply chain, they provide jobs, homes and community for the people who grow, harvest and package them. For six days in January, a group of Whole Foods Market® team members traveled to South America, visiting farms, meeting growers and seeing firsthand the benefits of our Whole Trade® flower program. It was a wild ride of planes, buses, cars and missing iPads, and through it all we were inspired by the people, the culture and the practices that create some of the most impressive flowers I have ever seen. This will be the first of three posts, with the hope of sharing our journey with you.

Throughout this trip I was continually reminded of how lucky we are, where so much we take for granted is an ambitious dream for others. Our Whole Trade program guarantees fair wages, sound environmental practices and improved working conditions. It also provides a 10% premium over the cost of the flowers (pre-shipping) that goes directly into important community programs. It was through the investment of these premiums that we saw the most visible and enduring impact for the workers. A few extra dollars per case of flowers turns into buying first homes for families, sending children to school, creating art programs, providing necessary medical and dental treatments and an overall elevation of the quality of life far beyond the norm.

Speaking of norms, if you’ve ever traveled with produce people you’ll understand when I talk about the one day we were able to sleep in, until the late hour of 7am! The world of flowers starts early and it’s an engaging combination of art, science, business and community. For those of us outside the produce industry, it was amazing to see the amount of work required behind the scenes to produce even a single flower. Entire greenhouses dedicated to the trials of potential new varieties, varietal buds spliced onto time-tested root stock, water and soil management, and the ongoing preservation of the blooms along every step until they reach our stores.

The timing of our visit was the perfect opportunity to watch the farms preparing for their busiest season of the year, Valentine’s Day. Some of the farms will almost double their staff during the next few weeks just to handle the volume and you can feel the activity building in the air. This year, I encourage everyone to share their love with flowers that support the Whole Trade communities of growers, to give the gift that makes a difference.

Check back tomorrow as we look at the specific community programs of Elite Flowers in Bogota. In the meantime, leave a comment below by Valentine’s Day telling us how flowers made a day better for you or someone you care about and we’ll donate a dollar for every comment to the Elite Flower Foundation as our way of sharing the love.

Small choices you make every day can make a world of difference. This Valentine’s Day, why not look for gifts that give back and really spread the love? Our Whole Trade® Guarantee ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions, and sound environmental practices. When you choose Whole Trade products, you not only show your loved ones that you care, you also use your buying power to create new economic opportunities for workers in the developing world.

These Whole Trade items are perfect for your Valentine… (Whole Trade) guaranteed:

• Change the world with Whole Trade chocolate. Eating or giving chocolate is a whole lot sweeter when you know it’s doing good.
• Beauty and body care with a conscience. Help your valentine feel great from head to toe with Whole Trade body care such as luxurious soaps, rich body lotions or sensuous massage oils.
• Love blossoms with bountiful, beautiful blooms. Pick bouquets or assemble your own lovely creation from our selection of gorgeous Whole Trade flowers like roses, Gerbera daisies and mixed bouquets.

This Valentine’s Day will you make a commitment to ethical trade, the environment and quality products?

Our Whole Trade® Guarantee ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions, and sound environmental practices. These Whole Trade bell peppers also generate a 1% donation of retail sale value to the Whole Planet Foundation.

These peppers come from Divemex, growers we have worked with for a few years now. We were pleased when Fair Trade USA came in as a certifier and helped the company meet their rigorous standards, which now qualifies the peppers for our Whole Trade Guarantee.

Recently, a group from our produce team visited the Divemex 175-acre greenhouse farm. They toured the facilities, learned about their production techniques and met some of the 600 people who are employed at the farm. Here’s what Matt Rogers of Whole Foods Market Produce had to say about the trip:

It was still a couple of weeks before harvest when we visited, but we saw some nice green peppers maturing on the plants. From a quality perspective, we like to see peppers with good blocky shape, full seed pack, even cavities around the seeds, and nice thick walls. Color comes on about three weeks after a pepper is mature and green. In the next five months, this farm will produce more than 10 million pounds of colored bell peppers!

With the Fair Trade certification, Whole Foods Market and our customers receive independent verification that working conditions and environmental practices on the farm meet high standards. Fair Trade also requires that a part of our purchase price be passed through to a fund controlled directly by the workers on the farm. The workers vote on how to invest the money to benefit their communities.

We met with the workers committee and they explained that the workforce had already voted to support three distinct education support programs for different interest groups:

• One for children of workers to support basic needs associated with attending primary school (uniforms, transportation, etc.)
• Another for workers themselves who want to continue their secondary education while they work
• And a separate one for workers seeking professional training of some sort to advance their careers.

Many of the workers at this farm are migrants from other areas of Mexico and special attention has been paid to ensure the families of these workers will also have access to the programs. We’re always excited to be able to support growers like Divemex who take the quality of their product and the wellness of their workforce seriously.

We hope you’ll pick up these peppers in our stores and help make this new program a success. Tell us what you think. When you buy something like bell peppers, do you consider the impact your purchase makes?

In Costa Rica, we buy our Whole Trade lilies from Plantas y Flores, and their deep red Asiatic Knockout lilies are perfect for the holidays. Plantas y Flores is located high in the mountains — about 6,600 feet above sea level — above San Jose near the Irazu volcano, which you can see on a clear day. They are keen on detail and, in addition to quality checks on foliage, they actually measure to ensure the head size of every lily hits our minimum specification. Once the lily stalk is cut for packing, the plant’s bulbs are taken out of the ground and used in the farm’s compost. It takes an average of 13-18 weeks to grow a lily plant from bulb to a stalk that is ready to be harvested for retail sale.

For every Whole Trade lily purchased from Plantas y Flores, Whole Foods Market makes a scholarship donation to EARTH University to support students who want to work in agriculture. Plantas y Flores’ greenhouse production manager, Juan Pablo, graduated from EARTH University. He uses his education and training as he focuses on environmental and sustainability at the farm. For example, in the greenhouses they use nutrient-rich compost and coconut husks on the topsoil — the compost is made on the farm from the packing house and greenhouse scraps. Juan Pablo also created a system of four water collection tanks to reuse as much water as possible from rainfall and greenhouse run-off; these four reservoirs are used for water re-use in the greenhouses.

In Ecuador, we work with seven Fair Trade Certified rose farms for our Whole Trade® Guarantee roses. Last year, I got the chance to meet Gladys, who has worked at Agrocoex, one of our Whole Trade partner farms, for 17 years. She explained that at Agrocoex she is able to participate in decision making and feels comfortable to express herself and her opinions. Women make up about 60% of the workforce at the farm and are valued for their work. Gladys and her coworkers have all received training in labor rights, project development, negotiation skills and management.

Through the farm’s programs, which are supported by Whole Trade purchases, she has received education for both herself and her 12-year-old son. In addition to taking classes at the farm’s computer lab, her son attends school courses sponsored by the farm, located where Gladys knows he is safe and the people are reliable. Her family received dental care that is affordable and close to their home. And Gladys has received a loan for home improvement and is working towards her dream of building her own home on the farm’s Fair Trade funded housing project.

So, the next time you’re in one of our stores, make sure to stop by the floral department to see our Whole Trade floral selections that give back to the communities where these products are grown! And if you, like me, enjoy lilies and roses this time of year, here are a few basic care tips.

Care Tips for Lilies and Roses

• Trim at least 1 inch off the bottom of the stem, and clear away any foliage that will sit below the water line.
• Immediately place into cool, clean water.
• Change the water in your vase at least every 3 days (and give the stems a fresh cut) to help ensure that your flowers are able to continually “drink.”
• Keep out of direct sunlight as this can cause discoloration.
• Note: Lilies have pollen and this can be a pest! To keep stains from appearing on clothing, table linens, carpeting, and even the bright white petals of Oriental varieties, remove pollen when still “smooth” by plucking it off. Should you find yourself plagued by a bright orange pollen mess, gently brush the pollen away using a craft pipe-cleaner (do not rub it in) and wash with soap and warm water. Pipe-cleaners can also be used to brush pollen gently off the petals of your lilies.

Which blooms brighten your holiday table?

EARTH University students are passionate about affecting societal change and improving conditions in their home countries and the tropics through their knowledge and leadership — like recent graduate Pierre Paul Audate, who advises small growers in Haiti.

Whole Foods Market started selling fresh EARTH University bananas in 2007, then added their fresh pineapples, and were excited to begin offering the new frozen EARTH University Pineapple Chunks and EARTH University Banana Chunks in early 2011. The sales of EARTH University fresh and frozen fruits help fund scholarships, and finance research and investment in organic and sustainable agriculture. (Try our collection of tasty recipes featuring EARTH University pineapples and bananas.)

All of Whole Foods Market’s EARTH University offerings are part of our Whole Trade® Guarantee, which ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions for growers and sound environmental practices.

Ready to learn more about EARTH University? Enter by September 30th for a chance to win a trip to visit their lush campus in Costa Rica.

Plus, all of Whole Foods Market’s EARTH University offerings are part of our Whole Trade™ Guarantee, which ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions for growers and sound environmental practices.

If that’s not reason enough to add some EARTH University fruit in your basket, then take a look at some of our favorite recipes for using EARTH University Pineapples and Bananas:

Mahi Mahi Pineapple Skewers with Tomatillo Salsa

Mahi mahi is at its best grilled hot and fast. That said, you could just as successfully use chicken, pork, tofu or shrimp in this recipe.

Quick and Easy Pineapple and Pork Tacos

These tacos are savory, slightly spicy and have just a hint of sweet. Serve with a bowl of fresh salsa on the side to spoon over the tacos, if you like.

Banana-Cocoa Snack Cake

Enjoy a thick square of this cake with coffee in the morning, tea at night or as a mid-day snack on the go. The cake’s sweetness comes from bananas and dates, and its richness comes from light coconut milk.

Banana Nice Cream

Easy as 1-2-3, this creamy, sweet and cool snack or dessert proves that added sugar and oil are not always necessary to satisfy your cravings.

And here are a few of our favorite smoothie recipes that work really well with EARTH University frozen pineapples and bananas:

• Mango-Pineapple Smoothie

• Paradise Found Smoothie

• Blueberry-Banana Smoothie

Ready to learn more about EARTH University? Enter for a chance to win a trip to visit their lush campus in Costa Rica.

What are some of your favorite ways to use pineapples and bananas?

Five winners will embark on a seven-day Costa Rican adventure where they will:

• Experience, first-hand, how EARTH University is preparing young students to become tomorrow’s leaders in sustainable agriculture, responsible business and community development.
• Visit with the farmers who produce the rich and creamy EARTH University bananas and learn how their innovative growing methods are helping to save our planet’s precious resources.
• Explore vibrant Costa Rica, relax on the majestic beaches of Puerto Viejo, sample local cuisine and cruise along the island’s southern coast in search of dolphins.

EARTH University is a nonprofit, international university dedicated to the sustainable development of the tropics through education, research and outreach. Whole Foods Market started selling fresh EARTH University bananas in 2007, then added their fresh pineapples, and was excited to begin offering the new frozen EARTH University Pineapple and EARTH University Banana Chunks in early 2011. The sales of these fresh and frozen fruits help fund scholarships, and finance research and investment in organic and sustainable agriculture.

All of Whole Foods Market’s EARTH University offerings are part of our Whole Trade® Guarantee, which ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions for growers and sound environmental practices.


Visit the contest page on our website for more details and be sure to enter on that contest page (not in the blog comments) by September 30^th, 2011. No purchase necessary!