The Real Cost of Imported Flowers
For reference from my earlier note on the subject, this is the documentary I watched about the Dutch flower industry that sparked this topic. It’s focused on the UK flower trade, but some of the issues are similar, namely the long distance transportation of perishable goods and the loss of local industry. I’m not a technophobe by any means. I believe that technology has helped human civilization in innumerable ways, but it can have drawbacks. The level of automation is astounding and is an amazing achievement, but is it always a good thing? I’ll be sprinkling links to relevant articles throughout the post. The labor practices are undoubtedly better than South American flower farms, AND they have made efforts to reduce their environmental impact by improving efficiencies. For this post, I’m focusing on the issues with South American grown flowers.
There is tons of info out there on the cut flower industry in South America, but please consider the source of the information. Some companies have a vested interest in keeping the import industry viable without regard for the human or environmental impact.
This is an issue that has been close to my heart for years. I was a small time market grower of cut flowers for a few years, and it’s something I’d like to get back into in the near future. As a consumer, I’ve tried to be more aware of how transporting perishable goods over long distances not only impacts the environment, but also the quality of those goods, the local economy where the goods are produced, the human impact of the people working on those farms, and the diminishing variety of things one can purchase.
Most produce and ornamental plants (including cut flowers) are selected for their ability to be transported over long distances. Not only does this impact the quality of the product once it hits your local market, it also reduces the variety of items you can get at your local supermarket.
Zinnias, for example, do not ship well at all. The stems break easily under the sort of handling that most commercially bred roses can handle. They make an excellent cut flower, but again, unless a florist or market can source them from a local grower, they don’t make it into a lot of arrangements.
This is a pretty brief, but very informative article about cut flowers grown in Ecuador: Your Valentine’s Day Roses Have a Real Climate and Human Cost.
From a labor perspective, the production of cut-roses is equally fraught. According to the International Labour Organization, the floral farm sector in Colombia employs around 130,000 people, with flower farms representing one of the leading sources of employment for women. Yet while 65 percent of Colombian floral farm workers are women, reports from local human rights organizations like the Project for International Accompaniment and Solidarity (PASO) describe discrimination, low wages, long hours, and other abuses.
Having been a small time market grower, I know exactly how difficult it is to get started growing cut flowers, trying to scale up with a tight budget, and finding ways to finance expansion that doesn’t include taking out a second mortgage. Because I needed my full time job for money and insurance, and my health was not great at the time, I stepped back from growing cut flowers as a business. It’s been several years since I even attempted to grow cut flowers at a scale that would allow me to sell bouquets at a farmer’s market or sell to a local florist.
The Flower Industry in Colombia: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Globalization
In addition to the decline in American flower growers, intense debates continue over the quality of Colombian flower industry’s work environment. Sixty percent of the nearly 100,000 Colombian flower workers are women. Many are single mothers. Human rights organizations and industry observers have collected complaints of sexual harassment by male supervisors, long working hours without breaks, and over exposure to pesticides and other chemicals. Some evidence suggests that children as young as nine years old have had to work all day on Saturdays in greenhouses alongside their mothers. Despite a series of reforms to address child labor and working hours, labor activists continue to criticize the poor work conditions. To compete with global flower growers, Colombian flower farmers must control costs even at the expense of its employees.
I’m one year away from being 50, but I still think this is an important thing to do. I will have to scale down and focus on a few varieties that are harder to get on the wholesale market, and find outlets for selling that don’t necessarily include me getting up at the crack of dawn on one of my only days off to get to the farmer’s market. Not to mention the amount of input required during my off hours from the work that is paying my bills. The actual growing of the flowers is one of the easier parts for me and I really enjoy it. Preparing the growing area, amending the soil, staying on top of weeding, etc. is the hard part. I realize that is part of growing, but it is the hard part that has to be done before there’s any yield.
Workers get the thorns: the moral ugliness of rose factories
The workers have a slogan: “The lovers get the roses, but we workers get the thorns.” A rose is beautiful but a greenhouse with thousands upon thousands of roses, a place producing millions a year, with stems and leaves and petals all strewn on the floor and heaped together in bins as byproduct, was not. Insofar as these roses were beautiful, their beauty was meant to occur somewhere else, for someone else, a continent away. Some of them were grown in paper bags to protect the petals from light, and we saw a row of rosebushes whose stems culminated in brown sacks, like divas backstage with their hair in curlers.
How can you help? Find a local flower grower and support them. It’s not always as easy as just searching for locally grown cut flowers in your zip code. The ASCFG has a list, but you have to pay a membership fee to be listed, so there may be growers in your area who aren’t on there. I don’t have a problem with that, because they provide resources and services to their members that aren’t available elsewhere. This is a fantastic organization, but please be aware that it’s not an all inclusive resource for consumers.
As much as I’m trying to move away from Facebook, it’s still one of the most comprehensive resources for finding a local business (if they have opted to create a page) and advertising your business just on sheer numbers alone. I hate that this is still the case, and I’m open to finding another source that is as affordable (essentially free), and has as wide an audience in my local area. Unfortunately, I just don’t think it exists.
Visit your local farmer’s market. There’s usually at least one vendor selling a few cut flowers. You aren’t going to get a dozen 24” long giant roses, but you may get a long lasting, locally grown bouquet of garden roses, lilies, zinnias, and interesting foliage that you may not get at your local florist. Ask your local florist and grocery store if they source any of their cut flower materials from local or regional farms.
The most important part: manage your expectations. Unless a farmer has high tunnels and greenhouses, they are not going to be able to grow everything all year, and truthfully, most are going to specialize and only sell wholesale if they grow at that scale. If you want roses in winter, you will very likely have to get them from somewhere else. (This is the same conversation about getting tomatoes in winter.) Locally grown flowers may be more expensive and less convenient, but you are supporting local businesses and your local economy.
I understand that convenience and availability are necessary for some people. Not everyone has the resources or the ability to seek out locally grown alternatives. Food deserts, disability, income, free time, and geographic isolation all play a factor. I think everyone who can should make the effort to seek out better alternatives, but no one is perfect nor do any of us exist in a vacuum, myself included. This post is not meant to inspire guilt or point fingers, only to let you know that alternatives may exist if you are able to find them. We should all consider how our spending and shopping habits impact the world around us, and how we can make small, but potentially impactful changes when and where we can.
Until next time…
Jennifer