Cut Flowers

I love to have a container of fresh, colorful flowers on the kitchen table.  I probably get a $5 mixed bouquet from Nellie's Wildflowers once a month.  It's an expense that's worth it to me: for $60 a year I have beautiful flowers gracing my table.

At a farmer's market today I got an awesome 2 for 1 deal on mixed bouquets and brought them home with me.  How gorgeous are these flowers?!

But it got me thinking, "what is the environmental impact of cut flowers?"  I've been thinking about this question for a while and today is the day I will do a little research.

When I searched for "cut flowers carbon footprint" in Google a ton of articles popped up from the UK.  Apparently then-minister for International Development Hilary Benn made a public statement to UK citizens to purchase Valentine's bouquets flown in from Kenya as opposed to produced in Britain because they have a smaller carbon footprint and the money goes to support a poor African country (see article in The Ecologist).  Growing flowers in hothouses in Europe uses a ton of energy and resources that can total 35,000 kg of CO2.  In Kenya, a more ideal growing environment, the energy use drops and even with the flight to the UK the total CO2 emissions are around 2,200 kg (see article in The Guardian).  If you just consider the carbon footprint of the flowers then buying Kenyan-grown flowers makes sense.

But as with everything in this world there are other factors to consider.  Take the social environment in Kenya.  The flower industry is huge in Kenya and, according to the article in The Ecologist, the protection of the flower industry during civil unrest led to widespread displacement and the deaths of civilians.  Child labor and gender equality must also be taken into account.

Another huge factor is the use of pesticides, water, and fertilizers in Kenya.  The laws for pesticide use are much less strict in Kenya and the use of DDT and other highly toxic chemicals is common.  The amount of water needed to grow the flowers takes away from fresh water available to the people of the region and runoff of the chemicals pollutes the water they have access to.

So where does that leave me?  I purchased my flowers from a farmer's market in downtown Boston.  They are from Stow Greenhouses in Stow, MA.  I'm sure some of them were grown in a greenhouse because they're more exotic species like lilies that might require more stable conditions than Massachusetts has to offer.  So my hope is that I supported a local farmer thus reducing the carbon footprint a little bit and putting money into the local agricultural economy.

There are issues with everything these days and my message to everyone is always "do what you can and don't get overwhelmed by the details".