Say it with organic flowers

This Valentine’s Day, express your love for your sweetheart with organically grown and fairly traded flowers. Conventionally cultivated commercial flowers produced in South America, from which Canada sources most of its imported blooms, are sprayed with highly toxic pesticides, fungicides and fumigants - 20% of which are banned in North America for being extremely carcinogenic.

The economies, the environment and the daily lives of flower farm workers in Columbia and Ecuador have been greatly affected by the cut-flower industry. Workers have been exposed to dangerous chemicals, resulting in skin infections, an increased miscarriage rate, neurological disease, reproductive problems, serious respiratory diseases and birth defects in children whose mothers were employed on these farms. And because many growers dispose of contaminated water and flower waste directly into streams and fields around the farms, surrounding villages are also affected. Water is often polluted and livestock eat contaminated grass and feed, which means contamination of the food supply chain. The ecological cost of shipping flowers makes them even more environmentally unfriendly. Road, sea and air transport creates water and air pollution and contributes to climate change by generating greenhouse gases. You might have thought you were doing the right thing by arriving home with a fresh bouquet under your arm, but the time they reach your beloved, those fresh-smelling blossoms will have left a trail of toxins and petroleum. Organic flowers are sweeter, longer lasting and honour both the environment and your beloved.
Amoda Custom Floral serves Vancouver and the entire Lower Mainland, creating custom designed flower arrangements while working to maintain the environment with the use of local, organic, veriflora certified, and fair trade flowers. Amoda can be reached at 1.800.539.3991 or email info@amodaflowers.com    

Capers Markets have locally grown, grower-direct premium blooms, and specialize in seasonal varieties such as locally grown spring tulips. Because they’re locally grown, their bouquets generate minimal greenhouse gas emissions in terms of transportation, and they support the local economy.

Sierra Eco is committed to improving and assuring fair living standards for flower farm workers and their families by ensuring worker safety, wage security, education and health care. Farms that carry the Sierra Eco label secure funds for housing, education and recreational programs. In order to maintain healthy soils and the availability of clean water supplies, flowers with the Sierra Eco seal come from farms that practice environmentally responsible flower growing methods, recycling and waste disposal. Sierra Ecco is available in Eastern Canada.

Need other options? Visit a local farmer’s market and pick up a dried arrangement or make one from organic herbs. You could get really creative - did you know that broccoli, cauliflower and artichoke are all flowers? Plan a meal, make an edible organic bouquet and then have it for dinner!

Consider presenting a single stem instead of a dozen to make a dramatic impression and reduce your environmental impact. Having trouble finding just the bloom for your Valentine? Opt for a potted indoor plant. Even when grown conventionally, a plant is preferable for the years of pleasure it can provide.