Bernie Ferringer has been in the business of growing, arranging, and selling flowers since he graduated from Purdue in 1969. He’s owned and operated one Indiana business, North Manchester Greenhouses, since June 1974. But bad economic news has emerged in recent years. Ferringer originally grew about 50 percent of the flowers that he arranged and sold, but now he grows only about two percent himself. He stopped growing standard and pompon chrysanthemums in the late 1980s, and he eliminated snapdragon production over the past couple years. Ferringer made these changes because cheap and massive flower imports from South America have made it tough for U.S. growers to survive.

USAID began promoting flower cultivation in Colombia as a substitute for coca production in 1965.¹  Since then, although coca production remains endemic, Colombian flower plantations have grown steadily, sending a flood of flowers to the United States. Today, flower farms cover the land that used to produce food crops, such as potatoes. Although imported flowers are less expensive for American consumers, they come at a steep price to both Colombian workers and American growers. The International Labor Rights Fund reports that Colombian flower workers earn about $6 a day, which is less than half of the money necessary to meet basic needs. What is more, a 70- to 80-hour week of labor is not uncommon and worsened by the fact that a 2002 Colombian law reduced overtime pay. Workers have little ability to protest conditions because the Colombian flower industry fights efforts by workers to form independent unions. As of February 2007, no union had been able to win a collective bargaining agreement.²

Two-thirds of Colombian and Ecuadorian flower workers suffer from work-related health problems, many of which result from pesticide exposure. A fifth of the pesticides used in Colombian flower production are known carcinogens and have been banned or restricted in North America and Europe. Cactus, a Colombian non-governmental organization, says that exposure to pesticides can immediately result in vomiting, headaches, and fainting. Short–term exposure causes rashes, impaired vision, and skin discoloration; long-term exposure can lead to neurological problems, asthma, congenital malformations, stillbirths, and miscarriages.³ The U.S. Department of State reports that flower workers in Colombia have continued to work in hazardous conditions out of fear that they will lose their jobs if they criticize abuses.⁴ Women, who make up 66 percent of flower workers, are particularly affected by abusive working conditions. In addition to the health risks, they are subjected to mandatory pregnancy testing and asked to supply proof of sterilization.⁵

These low wages and lax environmental regulations give Colombian flowers cheap entry to the U.S. market, making it difficult for U.S. flowers to compete. In 2006, the United States produced approximately $411 million worth of cut flowers but imported a whopping $597.68 million. More than half the imports were from Colombia, the number one exporter of cut flowers to the United States.^{6, 7} The U.S. production of flowers has dropped drastically over the past two decades as the market has been flooded with low priced imports. In 2006, the wholesale value of U.S. cut flowers was $93 million less than in 1990.⁸

Under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which was extended in 2002 from the earlier Andean Trade Preference Act, Colombia and other regional partners have duty free access to the U.S. market for cut flowers and other products. This Act requires regular reauthorization by Congress, but the Bush White House aims to replace it with a U.S.–Columbian bilateral trade deal that it hopes will be considered by Congress in 2008. If passed, it would give Columbia flowers and other commodities permanent, duty–free entry into the United States.⁹

If Congress passes the Colombia trade deal, American-grown flowers will continue to be replaced with lower quality Colombian flowers whose production violates many basic labor rights. The $6.49 million worth of chrysanthemums, $39.28 million of pompons, and $303,00 of snapdragons¹⁰ imported from Colombia last year prevented Bernie Ferringer from cultivating these crops himself, but he still grows cala lilies, which, he explains, are too delicate to survive the trip from South America. To build other types of bouquets, his florist shop purchases wholesale flowers from producers in his region because they are of a higher quality. Reflecting on how his business was before imports forced him to adapt, Ferringer said, “I miss the quality and the assured freshness of it… and being able to work in the greenhouse.”

Take Action

To support Bernie Ferringer and his colleagues in the American floral industry, consumers should buy cut flowers that are both domestically and responsibly grown. Go one better by purchasing flowers cultivated by growers in your region. If you can’t locate a verifiable source for domestically grown cut flowers, consider giving potted plants, instead of bouquets, as gifts. Visit the United Farm Workers of America’s website to find nurseries that have been endorsed for fair treatment of workers.

Footnotes

¹ “Floriculture in Columbia: Foreign exchange at the cost of exploitation of women.” Gender and Trade.
² “A Valentine’s Day Report: Worker Justice and Basic Rights on Flower Plantations in Colombia and Ecuador.” The U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project and The International Labor Rights Fund, Washington, DC, February 2007.
³ Ibid.
⁴ “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2006, Colombia.” Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, March 2007.
⁵ “A Valentine’s Day Report,” Op. cit.
⁶ “Floriculture Crops 2006 Summary.” National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., July 2007, p.4.
⁷ Trade Query– [All Countries], [Cut Flowers Fresh 060310], ten year, Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
⁸ Calculations conducted by Food & Water Watch based on data drawn from the cited sources:

• “Floriculture Crops 2006 Summary.” Op. cit, p. 4.
• “Floriculture Crops 1991 Summary.” National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., April 1991, p. 3.

⁹ “Andean trade promotion and drug eradication act extended.” Society of American Florists, October 27, 2007.
¹⁰ Trade Queries– [All Countries], [Pom Chrysanthemums, FR 0603107010; Chrysanthemums except Pom, FR 0603107020; Snapdragons, FR 0603108040], ten year, Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture.