Roses are red and water-intensive

Roses are red, but soak up a whole lot of water while growing to form pretty blooms -- which perhaps made it appropriate to launch a campaign on Valentine's Day to protect a lake from international flower vendors that are both polluting and siphoning off lake water.

However, this campaign launch happened at the  Wilshire restaurant in Santa Monica. The lake under question is Lake Naivasha in Kenya, East Africa. Which, for me, brought up this obvious question: Why is a campaign to protect a lake in Kenya happening at a ritzy restaurant in Santa Monica? What will motivate L.A. westsiders to get into this particular water issue, when we have water shortages and drought concerns happening right here?

Well, part of what The Food and Water Watch and The Council of Canadians -- the organizations behind this campaign -- are trying to point out is the fact that water issues far away are related to the consumer choices made right here. After all, most of the flowers grown using Lake Naivasha's resources are exported to Europe and the U.S. If we buy up these flowers without thinking, we're contributing to the continued environmental degradation in Kenya. Isn't global trade great?

At the launch lunch earlier today, Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, talked passionately about the  plight of Lake Naivasha, the third largest lake in Africa. The flower industry that's sprung up around Lake Naivasha pushes indigenous people off their tribal lands, pollutes the lake with pesticides, siphons off lake water needed by wildlife, and blatantly ignores workers' rights issues. That industry currently produces 25% of the roses sold in Europe.

Hauter said Lake Naivasha's waters are receding; the lake's likely to turn into a "sticky pond" in five years if changes aren't instituted. This means that whatever economic benefits Kenya is seeing from this flower trade is only temporary -- while the environmental degradation of Lake Naivasha will be long-lasting.

Maude Barlow, board president of Food and Water Watch, talked about the "virtual water trade" -- using local water resources to produce goods that gets exported. For example, Europe protects its own waters via tough environmental laws, thereby discouraging water-intensive industries such as that for flowers. However, European countries have no problem importing flowers from other countries that are basically draining their own natural resources for some short term cash.

In fact, even the U.S. exports a third of its water, said Barlow, mainly in the form of cheap corn and ethanol -- both products that are heavily subsidized by the federal government! Meanwhile, much of the U.S. is stressed about having enough water to support its population's needs!

What's a flower lover to do? While most of the U.S. flower imports come from Peru, Colombia, Equador, the same socio-environmental issues seen around Lake Naivasha apply to the farms in the countries we import from.

So I talked to Barlow after the talk, specifically asking her if fair trade flowers might be a viable option. After all, a couple farms in Kenya provide fair trade certified flowers for the U.S. And these farms not only address many labor issues, but also incorporate stricter environmental laws -- many aimed at conserving water.

Barlow said that she felt a sustainable flower industry around Lake Naivasha would only be possible AFTER a successful effort to restore the lake to its previous condition. We then talked about local flowers as an option -- but even with those, Barlow was concerned about the water use in California. After all, we have a desert-like climate. Is growing flowers a wise use of our limited freshwater resources?

Barlow said, somewhat ruefully, that she didn't sent flowers to her mom this year. She's now learned so much about water that she's basically unable to buy flowers. I mean, how can one buy water-intensive flowers for aesthetic purposes with the knowledge that people around the world are dying because they don't have access to clean water?

Of course, we can then ask: How dare we eat when others are starving? How dare we engage in any sort of frivolous activity -- listening to music, or blogging, say -- when people are dying in Darfur? Figuring out what's permissible or allowable in the land of plenty's very difficult with the knowledge that others don't even have their basic needs met. Should flowers be considered an environmentally destructive frivolity that all environmentalists should give up? Or should environmentalists go for more socio-eco ethical flower options, supporting more sustainable methods while boycotting the destructive practices?

As a girl who rarely buys flowers, I guess the conundrum isn't one that's so personal for me. Still, I'm not sure a complete boycott of all flowers is the right answer -- though it may be right for you. What I am sure of is that "conventional" flowers should be avoided. After all, you don't know where they came from, and you don't know what went into producing them.

If you buy flowers, make sure they fit into one of these four socio-enviro conscious options. And if you forgot to buy your loved one flowers this Valentine's Day -- Well, you have what I wrote above to use as your excuse.

Image courtesy of Food and Water Watch

Comments

[Giles Bolton]

This attitude is really frustrating. Kenya's economy is in crisis. The poor always suffer worst. The tourist industry has collapsed and tens of thousands are out of work. Kenya's flower workers, some of them thrown out of their villages in ethnic conflict, desperately need and want to keep their jobs. The point about 'tribal lands' is terribly ill-informed and there are many more thousands of people reliant on the flower jobs than traditional use of the land would ever have managed.

The environmental problems of the lake are serious - but they are for Kenyans to resolve (including the flower farms who have a clear interest in sustainability), not for others to impose their speculative assessments from the other side of the world.

Please keep buying Kenyan blooms - whether Fairtrade or normal. Kenya and thousands of poor Kenyans of all tribes urgently need you to do so. There's never been a better reason to impress your mother or a lover with flowers.

[Doodles]

Sure the people in the US have something else to do than to talk about water used in a different country by such a marginal industry. I would suggest do something about your carbon emissions, these are also / specifically effecting the poorest people on this planet. Even economically it is not making sense and they are hugely responsible for fuelling your inflation.

[Flower Girl]

This comment only for the blog owner i just want to thanks this guy. because of i get lots of information form it......