Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated with special evenings out, boxes of delicious chocolates and bouquets of seductively sweet roses. But people rarely realize that our romanticized day of love isn't as untainted as it seems.
My friend and I were in Wal-Mart last week when I happened to see several boxes of single roses (ironic, really) for sale, displayed right out in the center aisle, tempting you with their cheap price tags. Selecting a cream rose with pink tipped petals, I stuck it under my arm to carry and finished my shopping. After purchasing the rose, throwing the bag in my car, we set off to do other things. Normal scenario, right? Wrong. When I got home, I stuck the rose in a vase, hid it in my closet to give to my sister for her birthday later, and checked my email. I get a daily "dose of good" by the Good people, a subscription for a website that reports "good" or interesting news and I subscribed to their feed. Surprisingly, I received an article from them talking about violent labor abuse in the flower industry in Ecuador and Colombia. Interested, I clicked on the link and read the article. Immediately, my journalist’s curiosity got the best of me, and I started researching. I glanced at the rose I bought, and the tag said it was from Ecuador. Somehow, I knew, this rose had a story to tell.
Ecuador is one of the largest exporters of flowers. Mainly, hothouse roses are distributed to larger nations like the US during holidays or to mass retailers like Wal-Mart. 84.5% of school age children in Ecuador work jobs in the flower industry. Some children work in exchange for a lunch and their shifts can be several hours long. The safety and health conditions of the flower factories are deficient, causing more risk for health problems in the young workers. It is estimated that 80% of the flower industry work force consists of minors, largely being younger than 18 years of age. In a report on the conditions of child labor in Ecuador by the UN, "Ecuadorian legislation states that fifteen years old is the legal age for a teenager to start working for a maximum of six hours a day ...but this is far from the reality of the labor market."
The fact that there are thousands of kids working these dangerous jobs is disturbing as it is. But it's also very disturbing that many of the young female workers are being sexually exploited as well. Forced prostitution is a serious problem in Ecuador. The government is trying to crack down on factories and industry tycoons to eliminate forced prostitution and improve working conditions but Ecuador's shattered economy is what is forcing the minors to work...just to stay alive. A report analysis by International Confederation of Free Trade Unions stated that,
“Child labor is widespread in Ecuador, with estimates of half of the children between 10 and 17 being employed. Many of the children work in agriculture, including for exports, whereas many others are involved in domestic work, work in family businesses and in commercial
“Child labor is widespread in Ecuador, with estimates of half of the children between 10 and 17 being employed. Many of the children work in agriculture, including for exports, whereas many others are involved in domestic work, work in family businesses and in commercial
activities such as vending. The worst forms of child labor are also prevalent including begging
and child prostitution.”
So, when I looked at the rose I bought, something stirred inside me. Flowers are one of the most beautiful things on earth; they are like little rays of sunshine given to people to signify affection and love. And yet here they are being grown and cut by little kids not much older than my younger brother and sold in a Wal-Mart, the very image of how little we realize, as Americans, that we are so fortunate to live as prosperously as we do. But my question is how unsighted has America become? So blind that we don't even care where our products come from or how they got there, but just that they have the cheap enough price for us? Are we sacrificing frugality over ethics? I will never look at hothouse flowers the same, ever again. True, this doesn’t just happen with flowers. Even the clothes on my back could have been made in a sweatshop; but flowers? Ross Wehner of the Organic Consumers Association wrote, “Although the symbol of romance for Valentine's Day is the rose, Ecuadorans say it is their source of misery and illness. Behind the beauty of the estimated 110 million roses that Americans will give their loved ones [are] flower workers who suffer serious health problems from pesticide poisoning, according to local doctors and the United Nations.”
So, when I looked at the rose I bought, something stirred inside me. Flowers are one of the most beautiful things on earth; they are like little rays of sunshine given to people to signify affection and love. And yet here they are being grown and cut by little kids not much older than my younger brother and sold in a Wal-Mart, the very image of how little we realize, as Americans, that we are so fortunate to live as prosperously as we do. But my question is how unsighted has America become? So blind that we don't even care where our products come from or how they got there, but just that they have the cheap enough price for us? Are we sacrificing frugality over ethics? I will never look at hothouse flowers the same, ever again. True, this doesn’t just happen with flowers. Even the clothes on my back could have been made in a sweatshop; but flowers? Ross Wehner of the Organic Consumers Association wrote, “Although the symbol of romance for Valentine's Day is the rose, Ecuadorans say it is their source of misery and illness. Behind the beauty of the estimated 110 million roses that Americans will give their loved ones [are] flower workers who suffer serious health problems from pesticide poisoning, according to local doctors and the United Nations.”
The very symbol of beauty and affection propagated by such pitiful—and often devastating—means is something too heartbreaking to ignore. I literally lost sleep after finding out about Ecuador’s flower industry. But all I can do is save the rose’s petals as a reminder that sometimes the cheapest bargain may not be the best bargain. To hold that rose, and know that some little enslaved kid held it, even just for a moment, really changes your worldview. I hope this article has touched you in some way, because even though I’ve tried, words cannot amply describe my grief for buying that rose, and the very high possibility of it coming from a factory with thousands of impoverished children working there. I can’t explain why the rose made my heart saddened. I can only tell others the roses’ heartrending origins.
To avoid this problem in the future, look for flowers that are “fair-trade certified” such as One World Flowers, World Flowers, or the Inbloom Group.
If you would like to learn more about products sold around the world made by forced/child labor, I highly recommend visiting this website.
Always for you,
Oh, how my heart broke reading this article.
ReplyDeleteI want to change this! It's not, not right.
Thank you for taking the time to research and write this, Liz. It opened my eyes.
Wow! I never really thought about where flowers came from, or who was behind them. That is terrible about the poor children in Ecuador, and whats even more sad, is that most will never escape their life living in poverty.
ReplyDeleteExcellent writing, Lizzie.
ReplyDeleteI have never considered this issue- thanks SO much for sharing.
Great article, Lizzie! I learned about this just recently, though that article was talking more about the conditions that women laborers work in - pesticide burns, miscarriges, abuse.... The flowers in the grocery store always make me happy, but I will be more studious before buying any now! And my one-day dream of owning a little local flower farm is sounding better than ever...
ReplyDeleteI never knew that! I'm going to forward this
ReplyDelete