Today is Valentine's Day. But Not Everything is Coming Up Roses.
Pretty poison. That's the Cut Flowers Industry.
Spoiler Alert! I’m about to launch into a bit of a bummer.
(Awww....here he goes again. Bummer Summers.)
If you’re having a great Valentine’s Day today -- read this post later in the week.
Pretty poison. That’s the cut flowers industry.
“The growing practices in the cut flower industry utilize many highly toxic chemicals that harm both the workers and the surrounding environment. Additionally, the farms themselves are riddled with labor abuses, toxic waste, and overuse of local water and energy sources.” (1)
(He DID say that this would be a bummer.)
“The success...in this industry is due, in large part, to labor abuses such as the use of dangerous chemicals and extremely low wages…. (T)he predominantly female workers of the farms, who earn around $300 a month, experience receive (sic) devastating side effects such as from these: toxic chemicals including ‘rashes, headaches, impaired vision, and skin discoloration’ from the many toxic chemicals they come into contact with through their work. In addition to this, these women face higher rates of miscarriages, infertility and birth defects due to these chemicals.” (1)
(Yikes!)
“Unfortunately, the human rights abuses taking place in Columbia’s cut flower industry don’t stop with this general lack of worker health and safety precautions. Workers on these farms labor for 16 to 20 hour days, and many of them struggle with carpal tunnel and repetitive strain injuries. To make matters worse, when asking management for medical assistance or time to see a doctor, the common response is to be fired without compensation. This not only leaves people injured and without work, but also at a disadvantage in finding alternative employment” (1)
(Oooof!)
Ah, but there’s hope: VeriFlora. With standards somewhat similar to those of Fair Trade and GMO-Free projects, “VeriFlora is an agricultural sustainability certification and eco-labeling program recognized as the gold-standard in the floriculture and horticulture industries.” (2)
(Well, okay, that’s a positive.)
Now. About those Valentine chocolates………
(Say g’night, Scott.)
Sources:
(1) https://brownpoliticalreview.org/2019/07/every-rose-thorn-exposing-cut-flower-industry/
(2) https://www.scscertified.com/docs/VFA_sellsheet.pdf
Background:
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/there-s-blood-on-those-valentine-s-day-roses/
https://www.dvflora.com/index.php/2010/02/23/what-is-veriflora/
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17115220
P.S. – I’m reminded of a jewel of a short story, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter. “It is about Giacomo Rappaccini, a medical researcher in Padua who grows a garden of poisonous plants. He brings up his daughter to tend the plants, and she becomes resistant to the poisons, but in the process she herself becomes poisonous to others” – including a suitor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappaccini's_Daughter