Your Guide To Green

Love is in the air as Valentine's Day approaches and rose growers everywhere have geared up once again to help Cupid's arrow fly. So let's take a look at the pesticide content of conventional roses and see if they are really providing the kind of “I Love You� message we are sending or receiving.

The cut flower industry has just recently begun to embrace organic cultivation and capitalize on the growing demand for organic cut flowers. However, The majority of conventional cut flowers are grown outside the United States, primarily in Ecuador and Columbia, where the use of pesticides remains unregulated by the governments and laborers are subjected to low wages and poor working conditions. According to a study by Claudette Mo, a professor at the Regional Wildlife Management Program of the National University of Costa Rica, nearly 50 percent of floral workers in Costa Rica and 60 percent in Ecuador showed signs of pesticide poisoning including headaches, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, skin eruptions, and fainting. In addition, exposure to pesticides has been linked with miscarriages, birth defects, cancer, reproductive illnesses, and lung and skin ailments. The miscarriage and birth defect rates also are substantially higher in the villages surrounding cut flower farms.

Even the United States government claims that the pesticides used on flowers are not hazardous to human health -- essentially they are the same pesticides used on food. Pesticides used in growing food enter our body as we eat, but with flowers it works a little differently. Although we don't ingest the pesticides used on cut flowers it remains on the leaves and petals, so every time we touch or smell them, the pesticides enter our system and can become a hazard to our health.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) conducted research on eight varieties of roses to determine whether or not the pesticides used on flowers are hazardous to human health. The study found that there were harmful toxins found on the cut flowers. In fact, one of the pesticides tested (identified as carcinogenic by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) came back at 50 times the amount found in food. A California-grown rose was found to have 1000 times the level of cancer-causing pesticides as comparable food products.

Cut flower operations, in addition to traditional agriculture, not only can cause health risks but also contribute to environmental degradation. Take for example the Smith River region in Northern California -- the nation's premiere soil for lily cultivation. Ninety percent of the country's lily bulbs are grown at the mouth of the Smith River which boasts the country's healthiest population of salmon and steelhead trout in its pristine waterway. According to Dan King, director of The Smith River Project, they have found that up to 350 pounds of pesticides is being used per acre of cultivation. As a direct result of this heavy pesticide use which runs-off the field into the waterway, the stream ecology and fish are suffering. This problem is not exclusive to the Smith River. Other common environmental problems include groundwater and food chain contamination, habitat loss, and soil degradation. In addition, when sprayed, some pesticides are released into the atmosphere and then drops as precipitation causing more pollution.

Now when people say 'organic,' your first thought may not be just food. In addition to food and flowers, people are also looking for organic bedding and clothes. So this Valentine's Day, be sure to show your sweethearts that you really love them and wish them good health with organic flowers and gifts. In addition to asking your local florist you can look for them at natural food stores, roadside stands or farmers' markets. If you can't find your dozen red roses there, don't give up, just hop on OrganicBouquets.com which supports various methods of cultivation ranging from wildcrafted to biodynamic. A bouquet of a dozen organic red roses on Organic Bouquets http://www.organicbouquet.com is only $49.95—just in time for Valentine's Day!

Sources:

Organic Bouquets http://www.organicbouquet.com

Environmental Working Group
http://www.ewg.org/

Lynn's Website
http://www.growingformarket.com/

Seeds of Change
http://www.seedsofchange.com

Organic Consumers
www.organicconsumers.org

KYW News, Philadelphia 1060 am
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