“Overdevelopment, deforestation, climate change and the commercial floriculture industry are all obstacles to what grows naturally and natively.”
Liana Demasi
The cost to the climate is enormous. Take roses, for example. Most American stores buy their roses in the warmer climates of South America, while Europeans buy theirs in Africa. After being bred abroad, they are cut and placed in temperature-controlled boxes and vehicles before finding their way onto the shelves to be purchased by consumers. On Valentine’s Day alone, this process produces around 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
There may be no easy path to a wildflower industry to replace our current commercial one, mainly because the industrialization of anything has the effect of eroding its meaning. In other words, the capitalism inherent in the flower industry turns living things into commodities, and foliage into objects to be owned. Perhaps the first step towards progress is to change the mindset of the global floral industry to see plants not as products, but as they really are: members of our community.
