Cut flowers are a lovely gift and a great way to brighten up our homes, especially in winter. Unfortunately, there is a dark side to cut flowers.

Flowers are one of the most pesticide-intense crops. Pesticide residues can affect flower consumers, but a bigger concern is the impact on workers in the flower industry, especially in exporting countries such as Columbia and Ecuador, where worker safety standards are often deplorable.

Canadians, for example, buy billions of dollars of plants and flowers every year. We import huge numbers of cut flowers, with more that $50 million in imports from Columbia alone. Virtually all carnations sold in Canada are grown in Colombia; about half the roses sold here are also imported, with the majority coming from Colombia and neighbouring Ecuador.

The floriculture industry uses a wide range of chemicals, including fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, nematocides, and plant growth regulators, some with potential for serious harm to human health. One report indicates 127 different chemicals, some of which are banned in Canada, were used in Colombian greenhouses. Mexican greenhouses sued 36 different chemicals, including the persistent organochlorines DDT, aldrin, and dieldrin.
Cut flowers enjoy a peculiar regulatory status in importing countries. Because they are an agricultural import, they must be pest-free to avoid introduction of plant diseases or insects. This is one reason why they are so heavily sprayed. But because they are not an edible crop, they are exempt from regulations on pesticide residues and are not inspected for these residues.

Columbia’s flower farms use casual labourers who have no job security. Seventy percent are women who earn just 60 cents an hour and work up to 60 hours a week, often without full overtime pay, before special occasions like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

By many accounts, these workers suffer from a myriad of health problems linked to exposure to pesticide cocktails that are applied frequently. They are sometimes forced to enter greenhouses only one or two hours after they are sprayed with toxic pesticides.

The ecological cost of shipping flowers, particularly by air, makes them even more environmentally unfriendly. Transporting them by road, sea and air creates both water and air pollution, and contributes to climate change by creating greenhouse gases.

While the market for food grown without pesticides is mushrooming, the market for organically grown flowers is just starting. A number of organic florists are operating in the US and Eastern Canada.

Consumers can play a role in building the organic flower market by beginning to ask probing questions of their florists. Where do their flowers come from? Are they sprayed with pesticides? What are the working conditions for the growers and flower handlers? Can they obtain organically grown, fair trade flowers?

Sierra Eco Flowers (not affiliated with the Sierra Club of Canada) is a Canadian distributor of organic flowers. See their web site at www.sierraeco.com. Perhaps your florist may want to check out this potential source.
The Sierra Club recommends that a more environmentally responsible choice than cut flowers is a potted plant grown in your own country. Another choice is to grow your own flowers in summer or to purchase them from local growers at Farmer’s Markets. Growing flowering plants or forcing bulbs indoors is an option for winter.


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Paul Hanley