Hollywood Free Clinic Rose Giveaway

Silverlake’s Hollywood Sunet Free Clinic received Fair Trade Certified roses from One World Flowers to participate in the Valentine Peace Project by giving out poems on love and peace from individuals around the world as a community themed Valentine expression.   The clinic’s mission is to provide quality health care, mental health services and required ancillary services to the homeless, poverty level and low-income residents of Silver Lake, Echo Park, East Hollywood and neighboring communities of Los Angeles. These communities are in most desperate need; the majority is at the 200% or below Federal Poverty Level. Each rose that was given away came with a poem from the Valentine’s Peace Project. Staff at the clinic celebrated the holiday by giving these out to fellow staff members, visiting patients and close neighbors from February 14-18.
 
Teresa Padua, director of the clinic said they had “loads of fun” sharing the beautiful roses and moving poems, noting people’s surprised expressions, cheering up work colleagues and individuals who might even have forgotten that it was that time of year!
 
The Valentine Peace Project works on community activities on love and positive peace in February and in September around the United Nations Peace Day and is working with ethical trade merchants to assist with the developmet of post-conflict region agricultural products as well as peace education, awareness and global community celebration.

A woman collects roses at a farm in Ethiopia, Africa's second-largest flower exporter after Kenya. Photographer: Jose Cendon/Bloomberg News

Fair Trade Certified^TM flowers were first introduced to the US market in 2007 when TransFair USA (now Fair Trade USA) began licensing importers for the program. The addition of Fair Trade flowers to the US market was an incredible accomplishment for the producers and licensees who chose to participate in the program. It presented a great opportunity to grow sustainable sales in a new market and make an even bigger impact for floral workers worldwide. The Fair Trade flowers program has seen a good amount of success since its beginnings, but has not yet been able to win the wide-scale market awareness and producer participation as other products such as Fair Trade coffee, fruit, and tea.

Toxic Perfection

One industry analyst correctly observed that consumers are perfectly willing to accept an apple with a spot or two, and coffee is never seen in its raw form, but consumers demand flawless, perfect flowers.  The result of this demand is increased use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals to produce faultless flowers.

A 2009 case study from the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization found that over 120 chemicals are used in Ethiopia’s floriculture industry, 15 of which the World Health Organization classifies as carcinogenic. This number is not much higher than what is found in other major floral-producing countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, and Kenya, where local governments often turn a blind eye to the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides that have long been banned in the United States.

Insecticide Use on a Non-FT Farm

The Fair Trade flowers program bans the use of over 100 of the most harmful agrochemicals and requires farms to learn entirely new growing practices. This is no small task to teach. The benefits of these changes cannot be overstated, but they do create a ‘barrier to entry’ for farms that consider transitioning to Fair Trade Certified^TM growing practices. This limits the reach of the program in many areas where chemical-induced production is seen as the norm.

 On the Move

In addition to wanting perfect flowers, consumers want their bouquets to last for many days. One of the unique challenges to Fair Trade flower importers is the logistics and timing of importing a highly perishable product.  Unlike coffee, tea, clothing, or even fruit, flowers must be hydrated and kept cool for their long journey into the country and even up until delivery to the final consumer.

From the perspective of a licensed importer, this can be a challenging task. Many importers bring Fair Trade flowers in to large warehousing facilities where they are hydrated, cooled, repackaged, and then shipped to a florist or final customer. This method can cut 3 to 5 days off the lifespan of those flowers in a customer’s home or office.

Other companies like One World Flowers have developed a direct-ship logistics solution to getting flowers to customers. In this case, flowers are cut and hydrated at the farm, and they arrive directly to the consumer within 48 to 72 hours later. There is a significant cost associated with direct shipping in this way, but the benefits include a much longer lifespan for the flowers and a higher quality product that hasn’t experienced as much interference as warehoused flowers.

Logistics of Flower Shipping

Despite these challenges and many others, Fair Trade flowers in the US have made a great impact and resulted in many changes on floral farms, especially in South America. The importers and producers that are committed to the program continue to see Fair Trade sales rise, even in the depths of America’s economic woes. Take a moment during Fair Trade Month to help the Fair Trade flower movement grow while brightening someone’s day at the same time.

BY JOHN S. NIBLOCK

Alaina Paradise is happy to go from zero to 90. That’s the number of customers her One World Flowers import and distributing company has attracted with its Fair Trade offerings in its first two years. The economic skies were cloudy when Ms. Paradise began operations in May 2008, but as she put it, “we could only go up.” Not only were times hard, but she was beginning a new company with a premium product yet to find a reliable niche in retail markets.

One World Flowers is a licensed importer of Fair Trade flowers from Ecuador and Colombia. The company sells them nationwide to supermarkets, co-op grocers, and retail florists who have customers looking for more than just green options in the floral department. “More consumers are becoming aware of the human rights issues surrounding the products they buy,” said Ms. Paradise, “and they’re learning to look for labels that take care of people as well as the environment.”

The Fair Trade label is what Ms. Paradise calls a “complete sustainability” label. It guarantees not only environmental protection, but also human rights standards. Components include controls on pesticide use, safe working conditions, and fair wages for workers. “A big part of the Fair Trade program is direct and long-term relationships between the farms and importers,” Ms. Paradise stated in a phone interview. “We work together in marketing initiatives, sales efforts and in daily operations.”

In addition to the fair wages and benefits that are paid to workers, One World Flowers pays an additional 10 percent of the purchase price into a separate fund managed by workers, who vote on how the money will be used to improve their communities. “So far our farms have built an on-site daycare center, paid for lots of scholarships for workers and their children, and started a micro-loan program,” she said.

Awareness of the benefits of Fair Trade has grown, and One World Flowers sales have grown with it. It offers retail customers a way to compete on the basis of sustainability by offering customers products that match their values. “I am a Christian and Fair Trade is my way of taking my values to the marketplace,” Ms. Paradise elaborated. “Every human being does the same thing in their own way. Those who value money will look for a good deal. Those who value fashion will buy the best brands. Those who value human rights and well-rounded sustainability will buy Fair Trade. An increasing number of customers are demanding well rounded sustainability and we sell flowers that achieve that.”

Many of her competitors have found Fair Trade to be a much harder sell than their regular green products, she said. There are limited Fair Trade varieties, the cost is higher and there is a lot of reporting involved to stay compliant. “We remain committed to making the program work,” she said. “As a result, our margins are much lower than those of the average floral importer. That’s so our Fair Trade flowers can be available to as many people as possible.” To help its retail customers communicate the benefits of Fair Trade, One World Flowers offers free point-of-sale posters and signage, customized tags for flowers, and staff materials like “Ask Me About Fair Trade” buttons and training sheets with answers to frequently asked questions. The company also provides press releases, and photos for use in newsletters or on retail web sites.