What are the issues around imported flowers?

At MeadowSweet Posies we choose to use British grown flowers so we can offer flowers that are grown locally, seasonally and in harmony with nature. We feel that these flowers mean more than the seasonless, uniform blooms that are typically grown on giant farms in the tropics. 

We understand that large farms in Africa and South America provide jobs for local people and having worked in rural Tanzania myself, I am well aware of the economic challenges of living in these locations. However, there are worrying findings, such as sexual exploitation of the predominantly female workforce, poor working conditions, 12-14 hour days, lack of health and safety equipment, exposure to hazardous chemicals leading to neurological, reproductive, and respiratory health conditions such as poisoning, cancers and birth defects. 

Farms are situated in high altitude areas that are often in drought-prone regions with landscapes of high biodiversity value. There are many environmental issues relating to the unregulated extraction of water, soil erosion and the polluted drinking water from chemical runoff. 

Unlike food products, there is no upper limit to the amount of pesticides used on flowers and, outside of the UK, chemical use is less regulated. Many of these chemicals are known to be carcinogenic and are being handled by farm workers and even show up in UK florists' urine samples, and even in those that wear protective gloves. Florists notice a dusty film on their hands after handling imported roses but, it's not dust, it's the chemical residue!

MeadowSweet Posies values and supports British growers, and we want to be sure the flowers we use are grown on land in a way that is good for the soil and good for pollinators, following agro-ecological principles that work with natural ecological systems.

The vast majority of the British grown flowers that we use are outdoor grown and grown with no chemicals and using natural organic fertilisers such as horse manure to enhance the soil. When we use British indoor-grown flowers they come from flower growers that have minimised their energy requirements by using LED lighting systems, use low-carbon biomass boilers with agricultural waste for fuel, have dug reservoirs to harvest rainwater for watering and provide habitats for wildlife such as water edge planting and flowers for birds. 

If you'd like to send a MeadowSweet Posy of British, seasonal flowers, please click here.

If you'd like to read more about pesticide use in the flower industry, this Guardian article will give you more information, and for further reading about adverse working conditions in the Kenyan cut flower industry this article by Anti-Slavery International is informative.