THE CONNECTION between roses and love can be traced back to Aphrodite in Greece or Venus in Rome: the Goddesses of love. The cut-flower industry was developed in England in the 19th Century and now stands at an estimated US$33 billion. The Netherlands, US and Japan account for nearly half of the world’s flower trade with the majority of the market being distributed via the Netherlands.
Since the 1990s, production has shifted towards countries where climatic conditions can provide year round production with low labor costs, with Colombia, Kenya, Ecuador and Ethiopia the world’s greatest producers. There are huge implications for the environmental impact of the industry.
Chemical pollution is an issue. The cut-flower industry is a short-cycle production process that requires the extensive use of agrochemicals which have a negative effect on the air, soil and water supply. It is estimated that one-fifth of the chemicals used in the floriculture industry in developing countries are banned or untested in the US.
Water use is also an issue. Increasingly, virtual water is being exported through international trade from some of the most water-stressed countries. For example, cut flowers account for 45 percent of Kenya’s virtual water exports. Controversy surrounds Lake Naivasha, with more than half of the water extraction coming from the floriculture industry. Yet, flowers provide livelihoods.
Proponents may argue that the floriculture industry employs thousands. Yet the industry is vulnerable to external factors such as currency rates, oil prices, climate change and the economic situation in the target markets.
As another Valentine’s Day brings a surge in demand for cut-flowers, and as the world edges towards a global population of 9.6 billion by 2050, which faces roughly a 70 percent gap between the crop calories produced today and those that will be needed to feed the projected population, it is important to stop and ask whether the water, chemicals, land, air-miles and carbon footprint used for floriculture wouldn’t be better used elsewhere.
China has emerged as a large producer and exporter of floriculture products in Asia. It plans to become the second globally after the Netherlands.
We need to think about land use. Globally there is an estimated two billion hectares of degraded land, roughly twice the size of China, with opportunities for restoration. This Valentine’s Day it may be worth considering the value of this culturally constructed symbol of love, and looking at the thorns on your roses – which countries’ virtual water, chemicals, land and labor provide your love token. (By Kathleen Buckingham, World Resources Institute, Feb. 9, 2016)
