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St Valentine's day - Be green, don't buy Roses!!!
Options
:money: If you want to offer completely blameless and innocent flowers to you Valentine, you can look for Local, Organic and Seasonal.
Please read from original website The Nag or read below.
Read it and you will understand that buying flowers from abroad is disgusting and really bad for the environment.
How many Roses are sold every year for Valentine's day??? :mad:
Why?
Local: The flowers will have used up less petrol and aeroplane fuel getting to you. They'll have polluted the air less. And it can be easier to check you're happy with the working conditions of the people growing them.
Organic: Fewer chemicals, which is better for the soil (so you can grow more flowers next year) and for the health of flower workers (so they can grow more flowers next year).
Seasonal: Out of season flowers are grown in hothouses that use a lot of energy for artificial heat and light. One study calculates that roses grown in a Dutch hot house have a higher carbon footprint than roses grown outdoors in Kenya and then flown over here.
What about Fairtrade?
If those Kenyan roses in the supermarket say Fairtrade on them, it does mean that the people growing them have worked in better conditions, and that 8% of the export price has gone to the farmers to use to fund community projects.
But, it won't tell you how much pesticide was used, or how much CO2 emitted, in the process of growing them and sending them to you. It won’t tell you which country the profits end up in, or the local environmental impact of people flocking to flower growing areas. Or whether flower farms take all the water in dry developing countries and use it to grow flowers for us to give to people we fancy.
The Netherlands are aiming to introduce for flowers in the UK by 2010. Until then, the most guilt-free flowers are local and organic.
I hope that all this info will be useful and will stop you to buy Roses. Other flowers are cheaper and it is a nice thing to explain to your valentine!!!
Many thanks to The Nag
:T:T:T
Please read from original website The Nag or read below.
Read it and you will understand that buying flowers from abroad is disgusting and really bad for the environment.
How many Roses are sold every year for Valentine's day??? :mad:
Why?
Local: The flowers will have used up less petrol and aeroplane fuel getting to you. They'll have polluted the air less. And it can be easier to check you're happy with the working conditions of the people growing them.
Organic: Fewer chemicals, which is better for the soil (so you can grow more flowers next year) and for the health of flower workers (so they can grow more flowers next year).
Seasonal: Out of season flowers are grown in hothouses that use a lot of energy for artificial heat and light. One study calculates that roses grown in a Dutch hot house have a higher carbon footprint than roses grown outdoors in Kenya and then flown over here.
What about Fairtrade?
If those Kenyan roses in the supermarket say Fairtrade on them, it does mean that the people growing them have worked in better conditions, and that 8% of the export price has gone to the farmers to use to fund community projects.
But, it won't tell you how much pesticide was used, or how much CO2 emitted, in the process of growing them and sending them to you. It won’t tell you which country the profits end up in, or the local environmental impact of people flocking to flower growing areas. Or whether flower farms take all the water in dry developing countries and use it to grow flowers for us to give to people we fancy.
The Netherlands are aiming to introduce for flowers in the UK by 2010. Until then, the most guilt-free flowers are local and organic.
I hope that all this info will be useful and will stop you to buy Roses. Other flowers are cheaper and it is a nice thing to explain to your valentine!!!
Many thanks to The Nag
:T:T:T
0
Comments
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I'll print out your post and give it to the wife instead of buying her roses this year, I really wanted to love but it's the carbon you know..0
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Anyone got the stats on the carbon impact of Valentines cards or chocolates....
Alternatively we could be sensible and realise that this is a once a year festival and that its being green in the 24/7, 365 things which really matter not having a bit of fun once in a while!Adventure before Dementia!0 -
but if we all stopped buying roses then thousands of Kenyans would be suddenly out of work... swings and roundabouts, all depends which facet of the ethical argument is most important to each individual person.
I'm giving my boyfriend a card I bought from paperchase (I walked there, and notice looking at it now it was printed in Britain, props to me) and a big sloppy kiss. Nothing more money saving than that last one is there! We might even spend the whole evening in bed... purely to save on heating the flat for the evening, you understand?!0 -
My husband bought me roses made out of material last year, a whole big bunch of 12
Still have them and will dust them off so he can give them to me this year as a "surprise" :rolleyes:0 -
The site seems to be an advert for paying £15 to buy wild snowdrops, I prefer wild flowers left where they are.
A lot of different view points especially on the idea that flown in Kenyan flowers are CO2 wise better than local artificially heated climate ones.
Developing countries rely a lot on the cultivation of flowers as a boost to the economy and there was a thing on the news about recently about how fighting has damaged a lot of this industry and how the people want it back to normal as soon as possible.
The article on the finances of investment in Kenya is very once sided the the fact the want complete independence from foreign companies but even our country officials travel the world trying to get foreign companies to invest and provide jobs for us. A lot of our large hotels chains are owned internationally too and international visitors book with their own local tour organisers to arrange their package not call to find a UK travel organiser to give their business too. We just take the the local jobs catering for the visitors when they are in the country.0 -
What about a bunch of daffodils?
I see them in the shops already for 99p (MS), I assume they are kind of locally grown and seasonal, as our narcissi in sheltered windowboxes are already opening.
Maybe not the same romantic image as a red rose, but I love their brightness and cheerfulness, they show that spring is definetely round the corner.0 -
Local: The flowers will have used up less petrol and aeroplane fuel getting to you. They'll have polluted the air less. And it can be easier to check you're happy with the working conditions of the people growing them.
Organic: Fewer chemicals, which is better for the soil (so you can grow more flowers next year) and for the health of flower workers (so they can grow more flowers next year).
Seasonal: Out of season flowers are grown in hothouses that use a lot of energy for artificial heat and light. One study calculates that roses grown in a Dutch hot house have a higher carbon footprint than roses grown outdoors in Kenya and then flown over here.
Local? You'll not find many UK grown flowers. Maybe the odd bunch or daffs or tulips. Unless you mean Holland as local.
Seasonal? Irrespective of the seaoson most flowers are grown in greenhouses, most of which are now very enviromentally friendy. It also keeps them away from pests, and in a controlled enviroement.0 -
If I can afford it I certainly will be buying roses for Valentines this year. However they will have to be Fair Trade flowers or I do not buy them. As has been pointed out above thousands of poor people abroad work in this industry and provide for their families and have other benefits too such as health care as long as you buy FAIR TRADE so I for one will be happy to do so. Issues such as this are not always clear cut and simple.0
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Whilst I have no difficulty in principle with FairTrade, I believe that "charity" begins at home and British roses have fewer airmiles.
I've ordered mine from David Austin RosesWarning ..... I'm a peri-menopausal axe-wielding maniac0 -
I do agree... don't buy flower buy a flower that will last forever a murano glass red rose Eli's murano glass only € 20 shipping included0
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