        
Farm Stand & Organic Kitchen > Flower ID Chart > Pretty Poison Pretty Poison: Why Non-Organic Flowers May Not Be Such a Sweet Buy “A rose is a rose is a rose,” unless you look into its not-so-sweet-smelling past. Conventionally grown cut flowers are subjected to many pesticides during production to guarantee a perfect product. While workers in greenhouses and fields are exposed to the most immediate danger, Peg Perreault of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that no guidelines exist for determining levels of pesticide residue on cut flowers available to consumers. The EPA’s Worker Protection Standard requires stringent safeguards for workers in the US flower industry, such as the use of protective masks and gloves, decontamination processes, and restricted re-entry requirements. Nonetheless, flowers are automatically considered safe once they’ve been harvested and sent to market — often less than 24 hours after cutting. Some chemicals routinely used in US flower production, such as chlorothal and mancozeb, are rated as “likely” and “probable” human carcinogens by the EPA. Methyl bromide, known to cause acute toxicity and birth defects, is a commonly used fumigant. The Ugly Side of Imported Flowers As bad as the chemical soup is that domestically grown flowers are exposed to, imported flowers are grown in even worse conditions. More than 70 percent of flowers sold in the US are not grown here. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 59 percent of our cut flowers come from Columbia, and 15 percent come from Ecuador. And like many Third World export crops, flower production involves heavy use of pesticides — many of which have been banned from use in the US. And those chemical residues are still on the flowers when they reach this country. To produce cosmetically perfect blooms for export to the US and Europe, Columbia’s 80,000 flower industry workers — mostly women — perform long hours of physically grueling and hazardous labor. In an award-winning documentary from Columbia, “Amor, Mujeres y Flores (Love, Women and Flowers),” one worker says “Flowers are very beautiful, but they’re a health hazard. Behind every flower there is death.” While many of the women realize their work is harming them, they have few other employment options. In a 1995 article for the Global Pesticide Campaigner called “New Harvests, Old Problems: Feeding the Global Supermarket,” Lori Ann Thrup writes that rose and carnation producers in Ecuador use an average of six fungicides, four insecticides, and several herbicides. The situation is worse in Colombia, where flower plantation workers near Bogotá are exposed to 127 types of pesticides. In addition to the human toll, flower farms have polluted and depleted Bogotá’s streams and ground water. The Other Workers in Flower Fields: Protecting the Birds and Bees Humans are not the only workers in danger in conventional flower fields. Pollinators — most often bees, butterflies, birds, and bats — who transfer pollen from one flower to another are critical to fruit and seed production. In fact, animals provide pollination services for over three-quarters of the staple crop plants that feed humans, and for 90 percent of all flowering plants in the world. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), we are facing an “impending pollination crisis,” in which both wild and managed pollinators are disappearing at alarming rates due to habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, diseases, and pests. We must recognize that pollination is not a free service, and that investment and stewardship are required to protect and sustain it. What You Can Do to Avoid Chemical Residues on Flowers What should you do to avoid chemical residues on the flowers you buy? Whenever possible, buy organic, or buy at local farmer’s markets. You can also cut your exposure to the chemicals by buying specialty flowers — pretty much anything other than roses, carnations, mums, and gladiolas — which are less likely to be grown in greenhouse settings.
For more information, visit: Pesticide Action Network North America Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
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