Fair Trade Flowers

This from Iconoculture

"The flower industry is, like many others, highly commoditized and globalized, and there’s a good chance that your daughter’s prom corsage was grown in the developing world — in Ecuador, say, or Colombia. You might not be surprised to learn that the flower industry has for many years made use of cheap labor, most often mothers with no healthcare. So it was a happy surprise to learn that this spring, in time for Mother’s Day, TransFair USA added flowers to its Fair Trade certification, ensuring that the growers and cutters have healthcare, paid vacation, childcare and protective equipment.

Fair-trade flowers are now widely available at retailers like Sam’s Club, Whole Foods and 1-800-FLOWERS. So even if your bouquets arrive from half a world away, at least you can be sure that the globalized economy begins to meet the new triple bottom line of profits, planet and people."