Flowers, where do they come from?
Flowers, where do they come from?
When you buy flowers, do you actually ever think about where they come from?
Flowers have a ‘dark’ history. £ 2.2.billion are spend on flowers each year. An abundance of high quality, cheap flowers that are found in our supermarkets are mainly grown in East Africa by female workers. They are pressurised to meet the UK’s demand. Forced to overtime, sexual harassment and low pay.
The below animated film takes a looks at where the flowers are grown and where they come from. The film also shows the effects the industry is having on the environment as well as the workers.
Workers are often exposed to highly toxic pesticides and chemicals to increase productivity.
Did you know that exposure to pesticides causes seizures, blindness and leukaemia? - AND it also destroys the female reproductive system. Not only does the use of pesticides has devastating effects on the environment and the local ecosystem, the livelihood of local people is also further damaged by the overuse of water by flower farms.
Did you know that a flower is 90% water?
In effect, the flower industry is transporting water from the driest region in the world to one of the wettest regions in the world.
When did you last buy flowers?
The film is written and Directed by Paul Heard and Rebecca Swain.
Roots - Where do flowers come from?
Related article:
Toxic Chemicals in Cut Flowers | Dont Smell The Flowers | David Suzuki
Related links:
Women Working Worldwide
Pesticide Action Network
February 29th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
thanks for sharing your findings with the net. how informative! not that i ever get sent flowers, but i have always felt that i would never want flowers because they are basically dead and it is quite upsetting to see that thes plants have been killed (they have a consciousness too!)just to try and make someone happy. how can killing something make someone smile, and on top of that the poor workers who get forced to grow these flowers. its not right. but once you are aware of it yourself you just have to live the good path and not do what everyone else does with their blindfolds on… sorry for rambling on!
February 29th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
ps
and when you try and tell others the truth they just think you are nuts, and a conspiracy theorist or something. there are some wise ones though who cotton on to the truth, dont give up!