‘You’ll never look at a cut flower in the same way again’ promises the jacket sleeve of this book, which tells the consumer everything he or she needs to know about the huge global business of supplying cut flowers.

Amy Stewart’s book is written from the point of someone who loves flowers, but wanted to know a lot more about the conditions in which they are grown and sold. It covers the breeding, growing, trading, marketing and selling of cut flowers, and in the course of her research, she interviews people involved in flower growing in California, The Netherlands and Ecuador, sees flowers traded in the USA and The Netherlands, and interviews florists in several cities in the US.

Flowers are big business; Stewart quotes per capita flower consumption for all the major consuming countries: the UK is fifth at euros 55.3, well behind the leaders in flower consumption, Switzerland (euros 101.4). All the top 13 countries in terms of per capita consumption are in Europe. The US (the market that this book mostly covers) consumes a more modest euros 25.9 per capita on cut flowers. However, this represents a lot of flowers – imports into the US in 2005 were worth US$710 million at the dockside (retail price would be much more) – that is, 2,895.2 million stems.

Yet since flowers are not eaten, even the most concerned consumer is unlikely to give the same thought to pesticides in relation to flowers as to food. However, as Stewart points out, although not eaten, they are sniffed, which has implications for the consumer. Even if the actual amount ingested is small, it spoils the romance rather, knowing that the recipient of flowers given as a gesture of love may be breathing in, not the scent of the flower, but a lungful of fungicide residue. One of the strengths of this book is that Stewart, as a lover of flowers, acknowledges that much of the whole ethos of giving and receiving flowers is based on emotion not need. Flowers are not just a commodity, and not a necessity. She argues that even taking into account the emotion around buying flowers, buying decisions should be based on knowledge and understanding about how the flowers arrive in the shop. Consumers should ask questions, just as they are now increasingly asking questions about how their food is grown.
The conditions under which huge numbers of flowers are grown have big implications for those who grow them, particularly in Latin America and Africa. Since Stewart is concentrating on the US market, she concentrates on Latin America, from where most flowers imported into the US come. In the sections on growing, she contrasts the use of pesticides in European flower fields (where efforts are being made to minimise the use of pesticides, and there are strong regulations for the protection of the workers) with the conditions she encounters in Ecuador, where workers (children and adults) are exposed to pesticides illegal in Europe and the USA.

She traces the route of a particular rose grown in Ecuador all through its life from grower to florist. The demand for perfection drives the market and the growers. The consumer only wants a perfect flower, and unlike food, where a spotted apple is still going to taste the same, and be just as nutritious, for flowers, looks are everything. Hence the practice of dipping roses into fungicide before they leave the farm, to prevent fungus appearing during the journey to the consumer. Although Stewart points out these fungicides are not amongst the most toxic chemicals, the description of the conditions under which these fungicides are used is one of the points at whch Stewart confesses her heart hardening against the flowers themselves. Since inspectors in the importing country are likely to destroy an entire shipment if only one bug or trace of disease is found, then the routine use of pesticides becomes understandable.

However, Stewart also covers the various certification programmes for growers which comply with worker and environmental standards (see box). She makes the point that it is up to the buyer all the way down the chain – the trader, supermarket, florist and consumer to demand certified flowers, to make a difference to the growers.

The International Flower Campaign The International Flower Campaign is a multi-stakeholder approach involving NGO’s, trade unions, retailers, producers and consumers. It was started by trade unions and NGOs to improve working conditions and promote sustainable flower production. Participating countries include major producers and consumer countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, The Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Ecuador, and Colombia . The campaign produced the International Code for Conduct for the Cut Flower Industry which covers 10 elements: freedom of association and collective bargaining, equality of treatment, living wages, working hours, health and safety, pesticides and chemicals, protection of the environment, security of employment, no child labour or forced labour. Under pesticides and chemicals, the code requires the prohibition of phase-out of all WHO class 1, and PIC and POPs listed chemicals, endocrine disruptors and cholinesterase inhibiting pesticides, as well as requiring the safe disposal of containers, and stopping run-off onto water resources. The code also emphasises the minimisation of the use of agrochemicals. A number of certification programmes, such as Fair Flowers, Fair Plants use this code of conduct as the basis for their certification of growers. These programmes result in traceable and labelled products so the consumer can be assured of what they are buying. As the IFC says on its website: Flowers can be more than just a gift from the heart, they can also be a statement of solidarity towards people and planet.

Does this all matter? As the planet faces up to climate change, and to major changes in lifestyle, surely things that consumers buy solely for pleasure should be the first to be abandoned? Stewart sets out the debate around this issue and the differing arguments from those she interviews, including members of the communities around the flower farms. This book will help the reader become better informed and make up his/her own mind about how, where and if to buy flowers. Somewhere in the middle of reading this book, I was determined never to buy another cut flower again! By the end I wanted to seek out a florist with ethical certification, and buy the biggest bunch I could afford. (LC)

Flower Confidential; The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers, Amy Stewart, Algonquin Books, 2006, 306pp, handback US$23.95,
www.alonquin.com