Show your love this Valentine’s Day with fair trade roses from Ecuador. Purchasing these roses supports flower farms that treat their workers well and improves living conditions in their communities.
About 80% of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are grown abroad. To keep costs low, flower farms pay low wages and skimp on safety precautions for workers. The industry is known for heavy pesticide use—pesticides that workers breathe and touch. Farms with fair trade certification, however, receive a fair price for their flowers; in return, they are required to pay living wages, to treat workers properly, and to care for the environment by eliminating use of the most harmful agrochemicals and instead using natural rose pesticides like chamomile extract, cayenne pepper, and even spiders! Female workers particularly benefit from Fair Trade: they are protected from the physical and sexual abuse found on other farms, and leadership positions must equally represent women. They receive paid maternity leave and, later, break time for nursing.
Our roses are imported by One World Flowers from fair trade certified farms in Ecuador. In addition to paying a fair price, One World Flowers pays a 10% premium into a workers’ fund. The farmworkers vote on how to use the fund in the community. For example, at Inversiones Ponte Tresa, the fund provided a safe, on-site daycare facility for preschool aged children. Parents who work at the farm can drop off and pick up little ones on the way to and from work. At Hoja Verde Farm, the fund enables children to afford to go to school.
The roses ship directly from the farms to North Carolina, arriving in about 48 hours, which means they are super fresh and will last longer. They arrive this year on Thursday, February 9. A beautiful bouquet of six costs $19.99, and a bouquet of three costs $14.99 (see photos).
This Valentine’s Day, when you buy roses for your sweetheart, give more than an aromatic bunch of flowers—give fair trade roses and benefit the farmers who grew them.
Read more about One World Flowers at www.oneworldflowers.org.