By Michaela Haas for Reasons to be Cheerful.
Broadcast version by Eric Tegethoff for Washington News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

Debra Prinzing won't get red roses for Valentine's Day. She and her husband have been married long enough for him to know that Prinzing doesn't appreciate long-stem roses in winter. "I don't want to shame anybody," she says from her home near Seattle, "but I feel bad for the men who are targeted with TV ads before Valentine's Day and then think they need to get red roses to somehow show their love."

What's wrong with red roses? Quite a lot, as it turns out. "At this time of the year, you can hardly get any US-grown roses," Prinzing says. "They are flown in from Ecuador, Kenya or the Netherlands, packed in cellophane, which is not recyclable, not to mention the pesticides that have been used to grow them. When they are imported, custom officials are only interested in ensuring they don't bring in any pests, but nobody controls with which chemicals the flowers have been treated. To ensure that the flowers clear US customs, they definitely have been fumigated."

Exotic flowers might look appealing, but their ecological footprint is devastating, and Prinzing has set out to raise awareness of the truth behind the pretty blooms. As the founder of the Slow Flowers Movement, Prinzing and her colleagues want the floral industry and its clients to embrace local, seasonal and sustainable flowers, grown without pesticides and under fair conditions for the workers. "We take our name from the slow food movement," she says. "Everybody knows that this means regionally grown, nutritious and delicious food. But because people don't eat flowers, they pay less attention to where their flowers come from."

Buyers who do want to know the source of their bouquets can search the Slow Flowers directory, which lists hundreds of local flower farmers and florists that are part of the "farm to vase" effort. "We're growing by about 10 percent every year," Prinzing says of the Slow Flowers Society membership, which is 850 and counting. Or fresh flower fans can take a Slow Flowers workshop and learn to grow their own. This February, Prinzing is tending to hellebores, tulips and daffodils in her yard. "You can make a nice arrangement with some flowering winter ornamental shrubs," she suggests.

Cutting Out 'Fast Flowers'

Americans buy about 10 million cut flowers per day, spending between $6 billion and $7 billion every year, with the vast majority imported from monocultures in Africa, South America or Holland. Unlike with food, there are no restrictions on the quantities and toxicity of the pesticides used for the flowers that are often harvested by underpaid workers under inhumane conditions, packed in plastic and then transported over thousands of miles.

Prinzing refers to the imports as "fast flowers." Similar to fast food, the advertising might look appealing but the products are often full of toxins and won't contribute to anybody's health, least of all the planet's.

Since Amy Stewart published Flower Confidential in 2007, a scrupulously reported behind-the-scenes look into genetic engineering, exploitation of workers and pollution, awareness of the outsize impact of the international flower industry has been growing. Because the use of pesticides and CO2 emissions are not measured in most of the mass-producing countries, the true ecological cost is hard to prove. But on average, the production of 12,000 roses in greenhouses in the Netherlands, with artificial light and heat, produces roughly 35,000 kg CO2, about 10 times as much as a conventionally grown local bouquet. And according to Greenpeace, roses in Colombia are sprayed with 200 kilos of pesticides per hectare, about five times more than is conventionally used in the US.

Slow Flowers member Becky Feasby of Prairie Girl Flowers in Calgary, Alberta, is working on a master's in sustainability at Harvard University. Her research analyzes the environmental and social impacts of greenhouse rose farming in Canada (BC), the US (California) and South America (Colombia). She points to studies that show how excessive water and pesticide use in floriculture is threatening local water supplies and wildlife in Kenya. And if the slogan "Grown not flown" is taken seriously, every flight not flown from South America to North America corresponds to the reduction of approximately 1,000 kg CO2 emissions.

The movement is self-policing, and of course, there are instances of greenwashing. Slow Flowers have become popular enough that some farmers promote their crops as US grown despite importing them from Mexico. "I tell everybody: Go to your local grower and ask questions. What do you spray against mildew? What do you do with aphids?" Prinzing advises. "Most growers are incredibly proud of their work and will happily show off their flower fields or greenhouses."

In the end, Prinzing is convinced that clients and their wallets will decide the future of the flower market. Locally grown flowers tend to be more expensive than imported ones, so educating people on their value is crucial.

"We can't compete with the importers," Prinzing admits. Mass flower production tends to migrate to wherever labor is cheapest and regulations are laxest. Prinzing asks consumers to keep in mind, "The cheaper the import, the more damaging for the planet." When they buy from local farmers, clients know that the blooms haven't been flown thousands of miles and will last longer because they didn't get stuck in transit for days. "There is also less waste because about 20 percent of flowers can get crushed or die in transit," Prinzing warns.

She has noticed that the pandemic gave the slow flowers ethos a boost, and more local food farmers are offering bouquets from their fields in farmers markets. "More people decided to grow flowers or vegetables themselves or buy locally. Even if people don't care about the toxins in flowers because they don't eat them, many care about supporting their local economy, the mom-and-pop shops."

The growth of the Slow Flowers Movement is in part due to the popularity of social media. Erin Benzakein, owner of Floret Flowers near Seattle, has more than a million followers on social media and her online workshops, which cost $2,000, are sold out as fast as Taylor Swift concerts. Her professionally produced images of dahlias and sunflowers invoke a dreamy wonderland of pink, orange and red shades almost any time of the year.

But Slow Flowers proponents like Prinzing and Benzakein also admit honestly that organic farming without pesticides and artificial fertilizers can be hard work and the flowers don't always look perfect. "It breaks your heart when a late frost or a summer storm destroys everything," Prinzing admits. Nevertheless, she says has never ever used a single toxin in 30 years of gardening.

How does she get rid of slugs and aphids?

"I use beer for the slugs and non-toxic soap to wash off aphids," she shares. Or she might plant a "sacrificial batch of zinnias that attract the aphids, so that the aphids don't go find something else," she explains. "Maybe some bugs nibbled a bit at the leaves," Prinzing says. "You might have to adjust your definition of beauty and accept that not every leaf is perfect every day."

Just like with true love.


Michaela Haas wrote this article for Reasons to be Cheerful.


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A new film documents the 2018 battle between Colorado environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over proposed fracking regulations.

The film also documents a grassroots effort by Colorado Rising to pass a ballot initiative which would create a 2,500-foot setback for all hydraulic fracturing wells in the state, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Sarah Schulte, organizing committee member of GreenFaith Boulder County, which recently previewed the film for about 100 members, said the film has a strong message.

"What probably makes the film pretty dramatic and kind of shocking is the length to which oil and natural gas industries in Colorado set out to thwart them," Schulte pointed out. "Not only with some of the tactics you might expect, but also some kind of more nefarious tactics sabotaging their signature gathering, for example."

In the end, the petroleum industry defeated the measure after a $50 million campaign opposing it. Schulte acknowledged Colorado Rising raised only $1 million for its campaign. After the election, the state adopted a 1,000-foot drilling setback from schools and residential property lines.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, involves drillers injecting a mixture of chemicals underground to break up the shale and free the oil. The chemicals used in the process, which are sometimes toxic, can pollute groundwater and make the surrounding land unstable.

Schulte emphasized the movie had a powerful effect on the group's members.

"I think most people were pretty angry and maybe even a little sad after seeing how these kinds of politics play out in Colorado," Schulte observed. "They asked questions like what can we do next? How do you keep going when it's so difficult to fight such a big and powerful industry?"

The film, Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars, is currently being previewed by select audiences. It has won the "Spirit of Activism" award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival
and the "Environmental Award" at the 2024 DOCUTAH International Film Festival.

As part of an effort to restore the Mississippi River delta, an organization is collaborating with nature to address environmental challenges.

The Big Muddy is the second-longest river in North America, flowing more than 2,300 miles.

Simone Maloz, campaign director for the group Restore the Mississippi River Delta, said the coalition uses nature-based solutions to help tackle some of the river's environmental problems in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"We use the power and the sediment the river provides to help us to put solutions into place," Maloz explained. "For example, we might have an area of wetlands that needs to be nourished with freshwater sediment, we can tap into that wonderful resource that we have."

Maloz pointed out some farmers are turning to nature-based solution, using cover crops like clover or other plants to protect the soil. Cover crops typically grow in between primary crops, or are planted in the offseason to help keep nutrients on the ground so they do not become toxic in the water as runoff.

Maloz emphasized nature-based solutions are key to building resilient communities, which she said are those communities thinking about how to plan for climate change, such as floods, droughts, and rising sea levels, wildfires, hurricanes and coastal threats.

"What we know about resilient communities, whether you're on the coast, or whether you're not on the coast, is about how you can brace yourself for these impacts and how you can more quickly recover," Maloz stressed. "We know that when you include nature in those plans, it helps you to better do that."

Maloz added her group is involved in various projects along the Mississippi River, using sediment to replenish marshes, rebuild ridges and barrier islands and create habitats for migratory birds.


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The Iowa Environmental Council has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to invoke emergency powers to protect sensitive soil and groundwater in northeast Iowa.

The council is holding a public webinar today and wants the EPA to address groundwater contamination in northeast Iowa's so-called Driftless region. The groundwater there has a well-documented history of nitrate contamination.

Alicia Vasto, director of water program for the council, said the highly porous and soluble karst soil prevalent in the region is susceptible to contamination from centralized animal feeding operations.

"We did some analyses of private well data and public water systems and found that there was a lot of contamination of nitrate in those drinking water sources," Vasto reported. "The state has really failed to take action meaningfully that would address those problems."

The state has said it is constantly working to upgrade groundwater quality standards and is in the process of taking public input on creating yet another set of rules.

Vasto emphasized since the state has failed to address the water safety concerns for decades, the council and a coalition of other environmental groups have, in effect, gone above the state's head to the EPA, asking the agency to implement an emergency stop gap on nitrate pollution the way the agency did in neighboring Minnesota last year.

"We're asking that at, at minimum, the EPA would require the state of Iowa to do what they required the state of Minnesota to do under the same petition," Vasto explained. "Because the geology of northeast Iowa is the same as of southeast Minnesota."

The council's recommendations include calling on the EPA to create a communications plan with residents whose water could be at risk, create a drinking water sampling plan, and establishing a thorough permitting process for centralized animal feeding operations.


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