Discovering the Origins of our

Fresh Cut Flowers

Roses for Valentine’s Day

Lilies at Easter

Poinsettias for Christmas

These are just a few of the out-of-season flowers we Nova Scotians expect to be able to buy for special celebrations.

A great many of these flowers we cherish are grown in Developing World countries amid deplorable conditions.

A field of Baby’s Breath

Where do our Cut Flowers come from?

The two largest exporters of cut flowers are Colombia and Ecuador. Between them they account for 90 percent of cut roses, 98 percent of carnations, and 95 percent of chrysanthemums sold in the U.S.A.

Map of Colombia

ChileCarnations, roses

ColombiaCarnations, roses

EcuadorCarnations, roses

IndiaRoses

ItalyCarnations, chrysanthemums

KenyaCarnations, roses, statice

MoroccoSpray carnations

South AfricaProteas, roses, exotic flowers

ThailandOrchids

TurkeySpray carnations

VenezuelaCarnations, roses

ZimbabweRoses, proteas, asters dolidago

Other Countries that Export Flowers include:

What is the Effect of Flower Cut Production on Developing World

Workers?

Delphinium

1. Many are being poisoned by uncontrolled use of harmful pesticides

• Many of these countries do not have regulations regarding the use of pesticides now banned in North America, such as DDT.

• Workers are rarely given protective clothing against the effects of harmful pesticides that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Forty percent of Ecuadorian flower workers wore no protective clothing when fields were being sprayed.

• Colombian flower workers were exposed to 127 different types of pesticides, of which 20 per cent are banned in Canada and the U.S.A.

• Two-thirds of Colombian flower workers suffer health issues related to exposure to pesticides, such as impaired vision, respiratory and neurological problems.

• In Bolivia near the centre of the flower trade, nearly four percent of babies born in 2000 had some form of birth defect; eight percent of hospital patients were women suffering miscarriages.

2. Many workers are ill-used

• Few flower workers make a decent living for themselves and their families. Most earn about $2 a day

• The rights of most workers are not protected.. In Ecuador, of the hundreds of flower companies, only three were unionized.

• Most workers are females and in countries such as Kenya, the International Labour Rights Fund (ILRF) discovered that up to 90 percent of female flower workers had been raped by supervisors.

• Many flower workers, in an ongoing struggle to meet quotas, have to make their children work alongside them. In Ecuador, the International Labour Organizations estimates that in just two provinces, over 48,000 children are at work in flower fields.

Cut Flowers Ecological Footprint

1. Less Farm Land

• Turning arable land into fields for cut flowers means less land available for farmers to grow food for their families.

2. Poisoning the Land and Water

• In some countries, such as Kenya, workers are using ozone-depleting fumigants, such as methyl bromide, one of the world’s most dangerous chemicals.

• Unrestricted use of chemicals poisons both the soil and the waterways. In Columbia, locals were feeding discarded flower stalks to their cows, resulting in milk contaminated with pesticides.

3. Depleting Water Supplies

• Water, a precious commodity in many Developing countries, is being diverted to the flower trade. One large flower farm needs up to 80,000 litres of water a day.

• In Kenya in 2001, droughts left three million people short of adequate water while Kenyan farmers diverted water to produce 52 million tons of flowers.

• Flower farms near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi receive water piped from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, meanwhile most people in the city have no clean water supply.

4. Adding Carbon-based Emissions to the Atmosphere

• Flowers heavily sprayed with pesticides have a limited shelf life. It is important to get them to retail markets in the Developing World as quickly as possible.

• Flying cut flowers from South America, Africa and the Far East to markets in Nova Scotia means more noxious emissions into the atmosphere.

Lily of the Valley

Chile8675 km

Colombia4549 km

Ecuador5185 km

India10,973 km

Italy5961 km

Kenya10, 934 km

Morocco4891 km

South Africa12,000 km

Thailand13,333 km

Turkey7142 km

Venezuela3797 km

Zimbabwe11,743 km

Some distances cut flowers are flown to Stanfield International Airport, Halifax: