Flower power: with an entrepreneur's jump start, the organic market blossoms

E: The Environmental Magazine, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Ross Wehner

Veriflora's five basic principles begin with organic production but also include fair labor practices, ecology, water conservation and waste management. Veriflora ensures, for instance, that workers get at least minimum wage in their country, have the right to organize and get paid overtime. It also forces companies to mitigate any environmental damage they have done in the past.

SCS auditors will make unannounced visits to member farms and test everything from the compost to the streams running off the property. SCS hopes to eventually expand the program to include bananas, coffee, pineapples and avocados.

The Society of American Florists (SAF), which represents 23,000 U.S. florists, is so far not endorsing Veriflora. "We don't take a position on 'green label' programs because there's a multitude of them," says Peter Moran of SAF. "I don't see the problems on flower farms you read about in the newspapers. You don't eat flowers; it's not the same as food."

That kind of ambivalence is only one of the reasons why Veriflora backers will focus their marketing efforts on supermarkets instead of florist shops. Over the last 10 years, supermarket sales of flowers in the U.S. increased from 17 to 29 percent of overall volume, while florist sales dropped from 70 to 47 percent. "There are only 50 supermarket players that we have to convince in the U.S.," adds Peter Ulrich, CEO of Esmeralda. "That is a lot easier than dealing with 1,200 wholesalers and 30,000 florists."

But Ulrich also points to the next chicken-and-egg dilemma for organic flowers: American shoppers don't know enough about organic flowers to want them, and supermarkets may not be willing to spend the money to educate consumers. Ulrich predicts that the costs of producing organic roses will be about twice that of normal ones.

BioGarden, a small farm in Ecuador, is so far the world's only U.S.-certified organic flower grower. The company began selling roses, calla lilies and other flowers through Organic Bouquet two years ago. "We use chamomile as an insect repellant, along with crushed nettles, mint and milk curd," explains BioGarden owner Hernan Chiriboga.

BioGarden's biggest challenge so far is controlling diseases without synthetic pesticides. When BioGarden first began producing organic flowers two years ago, production dropped by 35 percent. This year it will only be 25 percent less.

Other growers say it is impossible right now to grow certain flowers organically. But Prolman believes the technology will develop rapidly--just as it did for strawberries 20 years ago. "These growers can't see how close to organic they are," he says. "You get them on the right path and they will run, especially when the market is rewarding them for it." CONTACT: Organic Bouquet, (877)899-2468, www.organicbouquet.com; Society of American Florists, (703)836-8700, www.safnow.org.