Aren't all flowers environmentally friendly? Actually and unfortunately no not all flowers are created equally. If bringing pesticides into your home, and the wide spread use of single use plastics concerns you then please read on.
Firstly the use of herbicides and pesticides in the flower industry is still wide spread. And because there are less standards than food production, chemical residues on cut flowers can be high. The situation for imported flowers is even worse with flowers required to be dipped in glyphosate (roundup) a declared carcinogen and other chemicals by the Australian authorities for bio security purposes. Do you want to bring these flowers into your house?
Making matters worse in my opinion is the wide spread use of single use plastic to protect the flowers while being picked, packed and transported around the country. Some florists then perpetuate this issue using plastic containers, floral foam, flower saving devices and non recyclable wrapping. It is estimate around 75% of cut flowers are still today covered or wrapped in single use plastic.
While we are certainly not plastic free, we use plastic buckets, seed trays and pots, but these are not single use. We don’t use plastic to wrap and transport our cut flowers. We don’t use herbicides or pesticides. Our farm is managed using regenerative farming practices. The goal of regenerative farmers is to leave the land in better condition each year. Not just employing organic techniques and practices, but actively adding carbon to the soil and focusing on soil health and biodiversity. Soil health improves resilience in plants so chemicals are not required and biodiversity encourages good bugs and natural predators of those not so good bugs.
So next time you buy flowers, please ask your florist where the flowers came from and how they are grown. If you can, please support those growers and florists who are helping improve our environmental footprint.