Let me get straight to the point. In case you are thinking of saying the popular three-word-phrase with flowers, be careful what it is that you say. Flowers are the most pesticide-intensive crop and flower workers pay a heavy price.
A study published by the Netherlands' Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment reports that Dutch floral workers are exposed to pesticide concentrations of up to 60 times the amount considered safe. The Netherlands, long famous as the global "flower capital," has heavily contaminated water and air in its flower-growing regions.
Floriculture is big business, bringing in five times as much cash per acre than fruit, never mind organic veg. Consumers demand perfection from cut flowers - nobody wants to send their sweetheart a manky bunch of wilting blooms, but the price of this perfection is high. Flowers are dipped in a noxious brew of chemicals to ensure that they look authentically fresh and natural when they are delivered.
There are hundreds of pesticides in use, legal and illegal, around the world. The hazards posed by these chemicals most directly affect the people working with them at a production level, but they also screw up the environment, those living in flower-growing areas, and, in all likelihood, anyone who carries home a bouquet in their arms. So if your purchase gets a good reception and he or she is swooning and breathless, it doesn't mean you're onto a winner. Symptoms of Organophosphate or Carbamate Poisoning can include contracted pupils, slow heartbeat, confusion, loss of coordination, sweating, tears, salivating, swooning or coma. Sounds like your average love-struck teen to me.
The health effects of pesticides depend on the type of pesticide. Some, such as the organophosphates and carbamates, affect the nervous system. Others may irritate the skin or eyes. Some pesticides may be carcinogenic. Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body. The Toxic Trail website claims there are some 25 million cases of pesticide poisoning a year, mostly in developing countries.
On flower farms around the world, especially in parts of Central and South America and Africa workers workers have to serve their boss under horrible conditions. Don't believe me?! Here, a few articles:
Cut flower industry accused of human rights abuses
The struggle to improve labour rights on Kenyan flower farms
Kenya - weak laws for a strong industry
Globalization in the Flower Industry
KFC (Kenya Flower Council) seeks law to rein in errant members
Just Say No to Fresh Cut Flowers
Cut flowers. Say it with flowers... Say: "I am happy to pay for environmental degradation, chronic illness and labour rights abuses in countries that grow flowers for Western consumers but cannot feed their own people."
Behind roses' beauty, poor and ill workers (who would believe this, taken from the New York Times)
GREEN / A Rose is a Rose ... or is it?
"Flower plantations are like sweatshops," says Ferm, who is based in Ecuador and visits plantations regularly. "The flowers are grown in greenhouses, which makes the use of pesticides especially dangerous to the workers. The pesticides stay inside the greenhouse instead of being dispersed into the air."
Colombia: Gardens of Shame (child labor on flower farms / The Observer, London)
Deadly blooms (The Guardian)
"Colombia's flower industry is based on the exploitation of its women workers."
If I've put you off buying imported minging toxic flowers, well, good. But if you still need to affirm your feelings with a purchase, what could you send instead? Well you could try buying locally grown organic flowers or labeled imported flowers*. Or herbs to stick in the garden for a year-round supply of tasty green stuff. Or, you could just feed 'em some sexy muesli - wild oats are a renowned aphrodisiac (apparently).
* A list of Fair Trade Flower Campaigns and Labels:
Fairness in Flowers (United States)
Flower Label Program (Europe/ mainly Germany)
MPS ("international certification org. from Holland")
Max Havelaar (Swiss Label for Fair Trade)
Sierra Eco (Canada; distributor of organic and fair trade flowers)
Now go to your florist and demand flowers which don't come from "sweatfarms" and are infested with synthetic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and insecticides. Consumers dictate the market!
And for those of you who want to take more action click here and send a protest email to Ecuadoran Minister of Labor and EXPOFLORAS, after reports of sexual harassment on their flower plantations.
We are not living alone.
~peace~
PS: Wenn du wissen willst, wo in Deutschland mensch Blumen mit dem FLP Siegel kaufen kann, dann click hier.
