Ahhhh..... Valentine's day

what a time of the year. It's a time you rarely hear people moan about the true spirit being lost, eh? No 'let's get back to the essential meaning of the day' really, is there? Instead, it's one of the most blatantly commercial celebrations there is: it's really just the first real excuse to spend after xmas. And don't they really push a particular type of wine in the supermarkets for V day? All those wines with blurbs on the back about soft tannins, fruity, velvety smoothness....wines that are in fact bland, characterless and at the same time globalised and heavily promoted.

I mentioned commodity fetishism recently, which I'd describe as the masking of important and otherwise objectionable unpleasantness, or occasionally horror, with frivolous aesthetics and surface attractivness. In this context, let's compare the love Valentine flowers are supposed to represent with the production of said flowers. Whether its the environment or the people who work the fields or in particular the green and glass houses, the prettiness of the flowers often mask the reality on the ground....

The thing is, organic has won the battle of language. Whatever about sales levels, whatever about organic being used to display or represent esteem, or status, or distinction, flowers on Valentine's day will never be the same again unless they are organic...and more and more articles seem to pop up each year making this point: Often in the US sometimes even with twee and transparent flash movies

But no one quite does it like PAN, the pesticide action network . (I'm not sure if the whole greek god of nature, and possibly an origin of the devil thing is played on deliberately by them in their choosing of the name PAN....)
Here's a typical one from their yearly offerings...ah go on, it's valentine's day you deserve another one
Just spreadin the love, baby