Local Flowers are Important

Each year the number of small-scale flower growers is increasing. But why and why are local flowers important?

No doubt you’ve heard the term “sustainable”. No doubt.

The concept is defined by the United Nations as “development that meets the needs present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet the needs of their own.” In other words, we need to consider how our actions right now will impact future generations.

Did you know that approximately 80% of the cut flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from other countries? A grocery store bouquet is shipped hundreds or thousands of miles, and is many days if not weeks old.

When making buying choices, such as for cut flowers, we ought to think about whether practices that are harmful to health and the environment and poorly paid farm laborers were utilized.

It is quite troubling to ponder global commercial cut flower production. Cut flowers are grown on an industrial scale and exported around the world. The carbon footprint for transportation alone is enormous!

Then there are the artificial lighting, heating and cooling of greenhouses and warehouses, toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, extensive irrigation even in parts of the world where water is scarce, production of all the packaging needed for shipping and sales, and the list goes on.

Many of the countries flowers are imported from do not have stringent pesticide regulations.  For flowers to remain cosmetically perfect during transport and in display cases, they are treated with toxic chemicals and hormones. The residue of those chemicals is still on the flowers when they reach the U.S.

What does that mean for people? Agricultural chemicals directly harm farm employees, florists who handle the flowers, and bouquet buyers, as well as contaminating groundwater.

And then there is the waste produced: single-use plastic, floral foam, and microplastics left in the environment.

Clearly, the global floriculture industry is not sustainable.

In stark contrast, local flowers are grown on small family farms, usually with children and pets around, so growers care about not exposing them to harmful chemicals.

That in turn means their flowers do not have harmful residues that can negatively impact flower buyers.

So you see, locally grown flowers are very important!

Krystal

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