KEY POINTS:
A hand-tied bouquet of flowers or an exquisite box of chocolates are traditional signifiers of affection on Valentine's Day.
Choose your gift carefully however, and you can brighten up the prospects of the planet as well as the eyes of your lover.
Campaigners say the public should think
as much about buying the right thing in the run up to the annual day for lovers as they do the rest of the year - if not more so.
A survey by Visa suggests that British men alone will spend some £800m ($2.2 billion) buying presents for Valentine's Day this year, with the average man lavishing £44.63.
As every ethical shopper knows, these present-buyers will be confronted with a variety of environmental and social dilemmas. Take a simple bunch of flowers, a popular gift. Have the flowers been grown in Africa and flown in thousands of miles to the UK with the consequent damage from aviation?
Did their growing take water away from local people? Are they Fairtrade, or have the workers who tended the stems been poorly paid?
What, then, should one buy to have a clear conscience on Valentine's Day? Ethical shopping experts say the foundation of good buying is to buy organic and local, and if not local, Fairtrade. Organic food uses no pesticides, local goods reduce pollution from transportation and Fairtrade guarantees producers and workers in developing countries a better return than they would otherwise receive.
Anna Mitchell, of Friends of the Earth, said: "We would say buy local food. If you are making a Valentine's day meal we suggest you make it with locally grown products, organic and GM-free.
"You don't have to buy a jumbo Valentine's card; you can send an e-card or make your own.
"If you are going to buy flowers then buy local or go for Fairtrade which should be clearly marked. If you are going to a restaurant, go to one which serves organic, locally sourced food."
Most roses given on Valentine's Day come from the Netherlands and some other flowers, such as carnations, may have come from as far as Kenya or Chile.
Chocolate too can have a bitter after-taste, given claims of child slavery in cocoa plantations in Africa - hence the advice to buy Fairtrade.
Similarly, Amnesty International urges shoppers to ensure they do not buy 'blood diamonds' responsible for fuelling civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1990s. Ivory Coast is the concern nowadays.
In any case, Visa's survey suggests precious stones are not necessary to win hearts. Women said that they most wanted, in the following order: a Valentine's card that says I love you (47 per cent); a kiss (44 per cent); a bunch of flowers (43 per cent) and/or a romantic meal at home cooked by their partner (39 per cent).
The credit card company said: "Surprisingly, both sexes preferred gifts costing less than £20 or displays of affection over expensive treats like a romantic weekend away."
- INDEPENDENT