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.
It looks like we need a better sustainability label. There’s an interesting one in the Netherlands that they’re aiming to introduce for flowers in the UK by 2010. Until then, the most guilt-free flowers are local and organic.
