Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and you're listening to Steph. Mom
Speaker 1: never told you. In my high school, we had this
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day rose tradition. It was sort of like the
Speaker 1: Anonymous Rose program. Throughout the day, roses got delivered with
Speaker 1: a printed anonymous message, and I think they were like
Speaker 1: two dollars to send one. A white rose meant that
Speaker 1: it came from a friend, and a red rose meant
Speaker 1: that it came from someone that you were dating, or
Speaker 1: that was interested in you some kind of romantic interest.
Speaker 1: A secret admirer. They might say. Um, and I did
Speaker 1: not really date in high school, but I did have
Speaker 1: excellent friends. I'm very very fortunate. One Valentinie's Day, I
Speaker 1: got a d aculous amount of red roses delivered to
Speaker 1: me with messages like from your secret admirer, or I'm
Speaker 1: superior to that other secret admirer, or don't listen to
Speaker 1: those other secret admirers. It was hilarious. I loved it
Speaker 1: because Valentine's Day, especially in school, could be really stressful
Speaker 1: when you're single, or honestly even if you're not. But
Speaker 1: in a different way, like those boxes in elementary school
Speaker 1: where you put your Valentine's cards in them and not
Speaker 1: getting a card. Was this really pressing concern? Kind of
Speaker 1: like that over the years, I've never gotten flowers from
Speaker 1: anyone I was in a relationship with. Now that I
Speaker 1: say that, that sounds really bitter, but I'm not bitter
Speaker 1: about it because they probably knew I would rather have
Speaker 1: food or drinks. For some reason, I did date three
Speaker 1: people that had birthdays on Valentine's Day. That was not
Speaker 1: a requirement, just kept happening and that was stressful. But anyway,
Speaker 1: this Valentine's Day, here's a classic episode about the flower industry.
Speaker 1: Whatever you celebrate, Single Awareness Day, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day
Speaker 1: meal above, I hope you enjoy. Welcome to Stuff Mom
Speaker 1: never told you from house Stop works dot com. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline,
Speaker 1: and may I also say Happy Valentine's Day. Eve. Wait,
Speaker 1: thank you, You're welcome. Are you gonna get me anything? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a podcast straight from the heart.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well we better get started then. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: And today we're going to talk about flowers because it
Speaker 1: is the typical Valentine's Day gift from one beloved to
Speaker 1: another or just to a friend. My dad sometimes will
Speaker 1: send me flowers on Valentine's Day, which is always a
Speaker 1: kind gesture. Um. But valentine Stay also reminds me of
Speaker 1: high school because I don't know how your school worked, Caroline,
Speaker 1: but mine it was a really big deal, and it
Speaker 1: was a big deal that made me probably unnecessarily so,
Speaker 1: but it made me really uncomfortable because there was this
Speaker 1: competitive edge too Valentine's Day because the whole week or
Speaker 1: two beforehand, kids would go around whatever kind of like
Speaker 1: class officers would go around and they would sell carnations
Speaker 1: for a dollar that you could give to other classmates.
Speaker 1: So obviously all little high school sweethearts would give each
Speaker 1: other carnations and you would either get them in white
Speaker 1: for friendship, pink for love, and read for passion. In
Speaker 1: high school, yeah, and so you always kept your fingers
Speaker 1: cross that your crush was going to give you a
Speaker 1: red one, that there would be a random red rogue
Speaker 1: or cardom scene. Yeah, random carnation, uh, sitting in your locker.
Speaker 1: The most popular kids would have collected just a bundle
Speaker 1: of carnations by the end of the day. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I really those that kind of obvious competition where you
Speaker 1: can count up your number of friends and lovers always
Speaker 1: really put me on edge. So that's what I associate
Speaker 1: valda'd si with, cheap carnations and high school angst. Interesting
Speaker 1: I associated with buying a new shirt with a heart
Speaker 1: on it every year, wearing it to school. Do you
Speaker 1: wear Valentine's themed clothes? Not anymore, but now we um
Speaker 1: in well know, I'm sorry. That was middle school and
Speaker 1: middle school we had, we had dances, and so I
Speaker 1: would always buy like a heart themed T shirt because
Speaker 1: I was really cool like that. And now we just
Speaker 1: have those celebrity montage movies that we can watch by
Speaker 1: ourselves with the bottle. That's a terrible movie. Valentine's Day, obviously,
Speaker 1: is one of the largest days in the floral industry,
Speaker 1: seconded only by Mother's Day. And just to give a
Speaker 1: hint of how we're going to turn this Valentine's bouquet
Speaker 1: into a withered handful of terrifying facts, um, we know
Speaker 1: the valand Tine's Day is really really booming for the
Speaker 1: floral industry because women on the plantations in Africa and
Speaker 1: South America harvesting all those flowers have been working up
Speaker 1: to sixty hours a week in preparation for it. Some
Speaker 1: of the flower farms in South America triple the number
Speaker 1: of of workers, most of them women, leading up to
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day. So yeah, January, February, March late, and you
Speaker 1: know then leading up to Mother's Day, it's big business. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Just I mean, if that doesn't doesn't warm your heart
Speaker 1: for this romantic okay, Asian, but let's go back to
Speaker 1: a simpler time. Yes, the Victorian era, so simple and
Speaker 1: yet so repressed, and that's what leads us to floriography,
Speaker 1: which is the language of flowers. And in the Victorian
Speaker 1: area era, excuse me, it was really popular to give
Speaker 1: flowers that had meaning. You know, you've all I feel
Speaker 1: like everybody's heard about you know, different flowers have different meanings,
Speaker 1: and you know you mentioned the different colors of carnations,
Speaker 1: the same thing for roses. Different rose colors have meaning
Speaker 1: everything from from sympathy and remembrance to love and passion. Well,
Speaker 1: in the Victorian era, you know, emotions that couldn't be vocalized.
Speaker 1: You know, you couldn't just walk up to somebody be
Speaker 1: like I love you. I mean maybe you could if
Speaker 1: you were like that, if you were very full award um.
Speaker 1: But people tended to give their their their crush or
Speaker 1: whatever um a bouquet that meant something, and everything from
Speaker 1: the flowers themselves down to the way you handed the
Speaker 1: bouquet over meant something. So the way you tied the bow,
Speaker 1: the hand you used, and God forbid you handed the
Speaker 1: bouquet over upside down, that was just what that meant,
Speaker 1: the opposite of what the flowers were supposed to mean.
Speaker 1: You give someone an opposite day bouquet, fairly, fairly opposite
Speaker 1: day has been around a lot longer than I thought.
Speaker 1: I mean, talk about salt in the wound, I know,
Speaker 1: but okay, so so every you know, bouquets. The flowers
Speaker 1: had a lot of meaning, and Beverly Seaton, in her
Speaker 1: book The Language of Flowers History, talks about how home
Speaker 1: manuals of the time illustrated very elaborate arrangements of cut flowers.
Speaker 1: So if you were high falutin, if you were in
Speaker 1: high society, you were expected to have a lot of
Speaker 1: cut flowers in your home. But not just in vases,
Speaker 1: not just going to the store and putting them in
Speaker 1: a glass of water. Now you were expected to have
Speaker 1: these elaborate arrangements because you were expected to either have
Speaker 1: the um the help around your house to help you
Speaker 1: arrange them, or you were expected to take the time
Speaker 1: to do it yourself to have these beautiful floral arrangements
Speaker 1: in your home. And this also wasn't just a product
Speaker 1: of Western domesticity. It reminds me of ikebana, which is
Speaker 1: the Japanese art of flower arranging, which is one of
Speaker 1: the typical skills acquired by geishas. Yeah, it's it was
Speaker 1: definitely uh also seen as a womanly pursuit. But I
Speaker 1: want to know what some flowers mean. If you were
Speaker 1: to give me a special bouquet, if I were to
Speaker 1: give you an iris, it would mean that I had faith, hope,
Speaker 1: and wisdom in you or hoped to impart that to you. Carnations,
Speaker 1: which there's a lot of talk of carnations and sex
Speaker 1: in the city, and we'll go into it, but carnations
Speaker 1: symbolize love and fascination, and there's a difference between a
Speaker 1: striped carnation and a solid one. But I can't recall that.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite flowers is the gerber A daisy,
Speaker 1: and there's you know, a million different colors those signify beauty, innocence,
Speaker 1: and cheerfulness. Yeah, you're all three of those wrapped up
Speaker 1: in a daisy, Caroline blushing. Um, it's actually the Gerbera
Speaker 1: daisy is the fifth most popular flower in the world,
Speaker 1: in the whole world, and according to literature, it was
Speaker 1: discovered in eighty four by a Scotsman in South Africa,
Speaker 1: even though I'm pretty sure other people had probably seen
Speaker 1: the flower before. But yeah, the Gerbera daisy as we
Speaker 1: know it today, and it's been bread and mixed, so
Speaker 1: that that's why we have so many colors and orchids,
Speaker 1: rare and delicate beauty roses of course, love and appreciation
Speaker 1: and they range like I said, red is love, pink, admiration, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So the floral industry traces all the way back to
Speaker 1: the seventeen and eighteenth century. Uh. It's starting off, not
Speaker 1: surprisingly in the Netherlands with the development of greenhouses, and
Speaker 1: that practice then is taken to the United States. Um.
Speaker 1: And one fun fact about the you know, the Netherlands
Speaker 1: are all known for their tulips, and tulip comes from
Speaker 1: the Turkish word for durban. Really because it was initially
Speaker 1: um taken from Central Asia and then across to Holland.
Speaker 1: I do love a good tulip and I don't mean turban,
Speaker 1: I mean tulip um. Yeah, the industry really grew in
Speaker 1: America with the advent of air transport and refrigerated trucks.
Speaker 1: So now you could take them much longer distances in
Speaker 1: a shorter amount of time. You didn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about them Wilton, because flowers pretty much have to be
Speaker 1: kept around thirty four degrees basically right about freezing when
Speaker 1: they're being transported. And in the mid nineteen sixties, you know,
Speaker 1: we've got all the development of where where this industry
Speaker 1: is moving. And in the mid nineteen sixties the first
Speaker 1: carnation production started in Bogata, Columbia, an area that offered
Speaker 1: great light and temperature, not to mention low production costs
Speaker 1: compared with North America. UM and large scale US producers
Speaker 1: are hard hit by all of the flowers that are
Speaker 1: being imported, and the floral industry, like so many other
Speaker 1: industries here in the States, has largely been outsourced. UM
Speaker 1: California produces of the domestic flowers grown here, but it's
Speaker 1: it's largely moved abroad, and UM one place that I
Speaker 1: did not realize was such a major hub of the
Speaker 1: international floral industry is Kenya. If you live in the EU,
Speaker 1: if you're listening right now in the UK, hello, talking
Speaker 1: directly to you. If you have. If you're looking right
Speaker 1: now at a vase of flowers, British friends, and Irish
Speaker 1: friends and Welsh ones too, chances are they came from Kenya. Now,
Speaker 1: if Carolina not here in the States, we're looking at
Speaker 1: some some flowers, some fresh cut well not so fresh
Speaker 1: cut rosas they be coming from South America. But Kenya
Speaker 1: supplies of all the flowers sold in the EU. Right.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of talk about as you can expect,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of talk about the environmental impact of
Speaker 1: importing all of these flowers. UM. But it's interesting that
Speaker 1: um twelve thousand Kenyan roses that creates raising them, you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: growing them, that creates two hundred pounds of carbon dioxide
Speaker 1: released from from the growth of these roses. The equivalent
Speaker 1: number of Dutch roses releases seventy seven thousand, one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty pounds of c O two because they require
Speaker 1: all that artificial light, heat and cooling. Over the eight
Speaker 1: to twelve week growing period, so you don't have the
Speaker 1: hot sun that's constant in Kenya and in Colombia. So
Speaker 1: while you're you're importing all these roses and you you
Speaker 1: might think it's horrible for various reasons that we will
Speaker 1: get into here shortly um. It actually releases less CEO
Speaker 1: two into the atmosphere because they have to tinker with
Speaker 1: that actual growing environment less um, which would outweigh them
Speaker 1: the cost I guess of transporting it and producing them
Speaker 1: and transporting them over um. And this is coming from
Speaker 1: the Globe and mail in Canada imported twenty three point
Speaker 1: five million dollars worth of roses from Columbia, and almost
Speaker 1: a third of all cut flowers sold in Canada are
Speaker 1: imported from Columbia, including fourteen point one million dollars worth
Speaker 1: of carnations and nine point six million dollars worth of chrysanthemums.
Speaker 1: And the government has incentivized this floral trade between Canada
Speaker 1: and Columbia because their free trade agreement that they recently
Speaker 1: signed removed a ten point five percent tariff on roses,
Speaker 1: so it's even cheaper now for them to bring these
Speaker 1: flowers way up uh the lands, way way up the landsonder,
Speaker 1: but we we did the same thing in UM. The
Speaker 1: US really was seeking to offset all the coca production
Speaker 1: in Colombia, and so we thought, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know what they thought, but they were like, hey, well,
Speaker 1: let's just have them make flowers instead. And so we
Speaker 1: suspended import duties on Colombian flowers. And this was in
Speaker 1: and just just to show you what that did to
Speaker 1: flower imports in the US, in one the US produced
Speaker 1: one point to billion flowers and imported one hundred million,
Speaker 1: and in two thousand three that totally reversed. The US
Speaker 1: was producing two hundred million blooms and imported two billion.
Speaker 1: That's according to the Smithsonian, who took a big look
Speaker 1: at um the flower trade. And now, according to the
Speaker 1: Society of American Florist, Columbia, not so surprisingly is the
Speaker 1: number one import country of flowers to the United States,
Speaker 1: comprising sixty of that aid, followed by Ecuador at six
Speaker 1: in the Netherlands at six percent. And then we actually
Speaker 1: get four percent of our flowers from from Canada. So
Speaker 1: I wonder if Canada is somehow kidding some flowers from
Speaker 1: Colombia and then marking them up and selling them to US.
Speaker 1: You're saying that we're getting recycled Valentine Stay flowers. I
Speaker 1: don't know, Canada, what's behind this? What's going on? Canadians?
Speaker 1: Let us know, Um, there is. There is quite a
Speaker 1: process in all of this. Um. It involves chemicals, lots
Speaker 1: of transportation, and a lot of labor. This is from
Speaker 1: the New Statesman, which describes the process and says that
Speaker 1: flowers are typically harvested, de leafed, semi dehydrated in refrigeration units,
Speaker 1: steeped in chemicals, packed in boxes, sometimes by machinery, and
Speaker 1: sent in refrigerated trucks to the airport. That's already that's
Speaker 1: already quite a lot of stuff. Yeah, and then once
Speaker 1: they get to the supermarkets and floors where they're sold,
Speaker 1: they are usually chemically rehydrated and in the weeks proceeding St.
Speaker 1: Valent Times Day, Saint Valentine's Day, so proper, proper, because
Speaker 1: that's how I am h and Mother's Day. Women on
Speaker 1: the plantations in Africa and South America frequently work sixty
Speaker 1: hours a week, like you said, So that's all part
Speaker 1: of this huge I have never I'm so ignorant. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I just haven't thought about it. You know when
Speaker 1: you go to the grocery. I like to buy flowers
Speaker 1: at the grocery store all the time. I never thought
Speaker 1: of this huge, long process. And so that's why I
Speaker 1: think it's important to talk about stuff like this, because
Speaker 1: something so simple as just buying a bunch of daisies
Speaker 1: while you're getting your grocery shopping done, there's a lot.
Speaker 1: There's a lot behind that, just like there is with
Speaker 1: your food. Of course. Well, I'm thinking about them going
Speaker 1: through the process of being semi dehydrated and then chemically rehydrated.
Speaker 1: That blows my mind. Yeah, it's because they've found this
Speaker 1: great growing location with all this sunlight and constant temperature.
Speaker 1: But then they have to get out to all the
Speaker 1: people who want to spend the money on it. And
Speaker 1: Americans and Europeans been just millions of dollars every year
Speaker 1: on flowers, which are mostly just to feel good purchase.
Speaker 1: It's like eat it, but you know it's helping somebody.
Speaker 1: And that's the big question of it, is it is
Speaker 1: it really helping someone um? Or are we because of
Speaker 1: this luxury purchase? Are we destroying the environment and perpetuating
Speaker 1: low wage um industries that treat women unfairly and we
Speaker 1: will get to the bottom of this um. This is
Speaker 1: in Scientific Americans. Stewart or of the World Wildlife Fund
Speaker 1: International sums it up this way. He and this is
Speaker 1: talking specifically about Kenya and Lake Naivasha, which is where
Speaker 1: a lot of those flower farms are located around. He says,
Speaker 1: it's one of the most perfect places to grow flowers
Speaker 1: at a high altitude with plenty of water and sunshine.
Speaker 1: And flower farms employ people and generate income great, excellent,
Speaker 1: but they're also big water and pesticide users. Right, And
Speaker 1: like you said, Kristen, Kenya supplies percent of Europe's cut flowers.
Speaker 1: That's that's a very large chunk. And the best are
Speaker 1: sold to flourish through Dutch auctions and then not so
Speaker 1: perfect end up in European supermarkets. So you know, same
Speaker 1: thing with me buying daisies at the grocery store Gerbera
Speaker 1: Daisies to be exact, Yes, beauty and innocence at the
Speaker 1: Assyrian farm on Lake Naivasha. H. This is from Scientific American.
Speaker 1: Also Roses, they talk about the the environmental impact and
Speaker 1: what companies are seeking to do to offset some of
Speaker 1: this impact. Roses are now grown with geothermal waste heat
Speaker 1: to save energy, and no roses are raised within a
Speaker 1: third of a mile of the lake to prevent pesticide
Speaker 1: runoff from reaching it. But it hasn't always been like this. Um.
Speaker 1: There were some alarm bills that were raised in two
Speaker 1: thousand three which were largely attributed to a special report
Speaker 1: in the Guardian new paper about worker conditions, and it
Speaker 1: was specifically conditions for female workers that make up a
Speaker 1: bulk of that labor force. Yeah, the Guardian made public
Speaker 1: concerns about chemical spraying, long working hours and harassment of
Speaker 1: female workers who were working under male supervisors. And concerns
Speaker 1: remain over wages today and whether the large flower companies
Speaker 1: are paying their fair share of taxes. UM. But let's
Speaker 1: look at two thousand nine as far as the lake
Speaker 1: goes that supplies all of the water to these flower
Speaker 1: farms in Kenya Um. In two thousand nine, a major
Speaker 1: drought shrank the size of the lake two levels they
Speaker 1: hadn't seen since the nineties. But that was then followed
Speaker 1: by a major storm that washed sewage and possibly chemical
Speaker 1: residue from the farms into the lake. So here you're
Speaker 1: you're they're using all this water, but then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden it's polluted, endangering all the ecosystems. And just
Speaker 1: to give listeners an idea of how much like of
Speaker 1: Russia has been affected not just because of the flower farming,
Speaker 1: but also because of that drought in two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: it has receded over one mile and Kenya is really
Speaker 1: trying to revitalize that ecosystem while sustaining these flower farms,
Speaker 1: which are so important. I want to say that the
Speaker 1: floral industry is the fifth largest in Kenya. It's very
Speaker 1: important for for their economy. And depending on what flower
Speaker 1: farm you work at in Kenya you might have a
Speaker 1: great situation. There are some farms that provide worker housing,
Speaker 1: education for their children, playgrounds, UM benefits. UH, there are
Speaker 1: some that are transitioning more to permanent employment instead of
Speaker 1: using contract work, but that's obviously not true across the
Speaker 1: board UM and so there's still a lot of concerns
Speaker 1: about wages and fairness and UM female workers and the
Speaker 1: things that they have to deal with. But UM the
Speaker 1: environmental issues with the it has led a couple of
Speaker 1: companies to start investing a lot of money and sustainability efforts,
Speaker 1: and there's the company, Flamingo Homegrown UH does follow fair
Speaker 1: trade standards UH and the company says that it has
Speaker 1: slashed pesticide use, replaced contract positions with permanent ones like
Speaker 1: I was just saying, and made efforts to actually train
Speaker 1: and promote women's supervisors. But UM University of Lester ecologist
Speaker 1: David Harper still has some concerns, and in February he
Speaker 1: basically said that the UK's demand for fresh flowers was
Speaker 1: bleeding Lake Naivasha dry, and he's urging the supermarkets that
Speaker 1: are buying these flowers to take more responsibility by promoting
Speaker 1: policies that would help conserve the lake's ecosystem. So he's
Speaker 1: saying that the people who are selling you the flowers
Speaker 1: in your own country need to be more responsible. Right,
Speaker 1: people who are worried from the more environmental standpoint can
Speaker 1: look out for flowers that are fair Trade certified, or
Speaker 1: you can go local are and buy more native plants
Speaker 1: that are native to your the ecosystems that you're living in.
Speaker 1: Obviously you can buy plants from and flowers from local
Speaker 1: greenhouses and other things like that. But let's let's turn
Speaker 1: now to another part of the world in Columbia and
Speaker 1: Ecuador have a very similar situation to the one in Kenya,
Speaker 1: which is, like we said, the the environment, the growing
Speaker 1: situation is perfect. It's on a it's on a savannah.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of water and sunshine and constant temperatures. But
Speaker 1: we've got the same issues with pollution, pesticides, female workers,
Speaker 1: all of that. And I thought it was fascinating how
Speaker 1: the Colombian floral trade got started. This is coming from
Speaker 1: a report in the Smithsonian magazine, and it all began
Speaker 1: because a guy named David Schiever wrote a term paper
Speaker 1: in grad school in nineteen sixty seven suggesting that the
Speaker 1: savanna near Bogatat was an ideal spot to grow flowers
Speaker 1: to sell to the US because it had an excellent climate.
Speaker 1: The flowers would take off, and they could apply assembly
Speaker 1: lines and modern shipping practices to to get things going.
Speaker 1: And boy, howdy was David Chiever right? Yeah? He he
Speaker 1: and three partners started Flora America, which used assembly lines
Speaker 1: and modern shipping. So right off the bat, they're like,
Speaker 1: we're going to make the model tea of flowers, and
Speaker 1: it really, it really took off, and now Columbia is
Speaker 1: the second largest exporter of cut flowers behind only the Netherlands,
Speaker 1: and it commands of the U S market, which you know,
Speaker 1: or sixty five depending on where you're getting your where
Speaker 1: you're getting your numbers between sixty five and seven. So
Speaker 1: basically a lot lot flowers. Uh. And this employs more
Speaker 1: than a hundred thousand people working in the greenhouses, and
Speaker 1: the majority of folks who are trying to work there
Speaker 1: have been women, many of whom are single mothers. And
Speaker 1: this is where the you know, this issue of what
Speaker 1: kind of female labor we are supporting when we're buying
Speaker 1: all of these Valentine's Day Mother's Day flowers. Uh. Because
Speaker 1: on the one hand, employment for single moms that sounds great,
Speaker 1: it is needed. Economists have gone and said, hey, this
Speaker 1: is a new form of job opportunities that would not
Speaker 1: be there otherwise. Not necessarily a bad thing. But according
Speaker 1: to the International Labor Rights Fund, the typical South American
Speaker 1: flower picker um is unmarried, she's got an elementary school education,
Speaker 1: and she has three or more children, and a lot
Speaker 1: of times she's not making enough money to really support
Speaker 1: herself and her family. Right women at the at the
Speaker 1: farm MG consul tories were surveyed and they found that
Speaker 1: most had previously worked on substance subsistence farms or as maids,
Speaker 1: jobs that paid lower wages than in the flower industry.
Speaker 1: But we have to ask, which is exactly the point
Speaker 1: you raised, are these the right kind of jobs? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, it is wonderful that single mothers can have employment,
Speaker 1: but if they're being exposed to pesticides and being hunched
Speaker 1: over all day with the clippers, I mean, are we again,
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of a toss up. They're getting employed,
Speaker 1: they're getting paid, but it's putting their children in their
Speaker 1: own health at risk. So for those sixty hour weeks
Speaker 1: that they're working, um, in anticipation of Valentine's Day. Not
Speaker 1: to be a total Valentine's Day down er, um, but
Speaker 1: these women are making minimum wage. They're working obviously long hours,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them will suffer repetitive stress injuries
Speaker 1: with no treatment or time off, and if they do
Speaker 1: try to get any kind of treatment, they will be
Speaker 1: asked to not come up, come back. Um. And there
Speaker 1: are also stories and this is from um that two
Speaker 1: thousand three Guardian article that really raised alarm bells. And
Speaker 1: things have gotten a little bit better. Um, But you know,
Speaker 1: some women were saying that when inspections would happen to
Speaker 1: make sure a working conditions were safe and equitable, the
Speaker 1: supervisors would ask certain people to stay home so things
Speaker 1: would would look more above board. Um. One of those
Speaker 1: things that's not looking above board is that as recently
Speaker 1: as the mid nineties, a Colombian sociologists found children as
Speaker 1: young as nine working in the greenhouses on Saturdays, and
Speaker 1: children eleven and up working forty six hour work weeks.
Speaker 1: So it's not only um, you know, taking advantage of
Speaker 1: women cheap labor from women, but also from children. Um.
Speaker 1: But talking about that exposure to chemicals, UM, survey of
Speaker 1: nine thousand flower workers found that they had been exposed
Speaker 1: to as many as one hundred and twenty seven different chemicals,
Speaker 1: mostly fungicides and pesticides. And this is echoed. The problems
Speaker 1: that come from this have been echoed in several studies. Right, UM,
Speaker 1: you might be thinking, oh, a one survey that's totally outdated.
Speaker 1: Well here about how about this two thousand nine University
Speaker 1: of Mexico study finding that women working in the flower
Speaker 1: industry in Ecuador reported more pregnancy losses than among women
Speaker 1: outside the industry, and the researchers linked that to the
Speaker 1: need for an evaluation of the reproductive health effects of
Speaker 1: employment in that specific industry linked to pesticide use. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're going to have this population doing this work,
Speaker 1: we should definitely take a look at how to make
Speaker 1: it safer. Um At two thousand six study of female
Speaker 1: flower workers in Ecuador. This was study. This study was
Speaker 1: published in Pediatrics found that a pregnant woman's exposure to
Speaker 1: pesticides was associated with the child's neurological impairment and higher
Speaker 1: blood pressure later in life. And of course we know
Speaker 1: that higher blood pressure can you know if if if
Speaker 1: it stays, it can eventually lead to cardiovascular problems. And
Speaker 1: in addition to uh, these kind of pesticide exposure ers
Speaker 1: and those repetitive stress injuries, there were, according to the
Speaker 1: Smithsonian magazine, also a lot of reports of sexual harassment
Speaker 1: by male bosses. Um. But again, these are these are
Speaker 1: issues that a lot of companies have tried to go
Speaker 1: in and rectify, but largely because watchdog groups have been
Speaker 1: formed to pay attention to these kind of working conditions, right,
Speaker 1: And I mean as far as creating better work environments,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about several of the companies in
Speaker 1: Kenya that are really seeking to be sustainable to help
Speaker 1: their workers and the workers families. UM. According to that
Speaker 1: Smithsonian article, the flower industry in Columbia created Floor Verde,
Speaker 1: a voluntary certification program that requires participating farms to meet
Speaker 1: targets for sustainable water use and follow internationally recognized safety
Speaker 1: guidelines for chemical applications. So there are people really trying
Speaker 1: to um improve the quality of their workers lives. And
Speaker 1: going back to the situation in Kenya the Economist magazine
Speaker 1: was talking about, but more the the the importance of
Speaker 1: the floral industry and kind of an unstable economy over there,
Speaker 1: and the report that the average monthly salary of eighty
Speaker 1: dollars plus benefits is actually considered a good wage. UM.
Speaker 1: So I guess that's why UM it was it was
Speaker 1: challenging to weigh the pros and the cons of what's
Speaker 1: going on in this industry, because whenever we trace back
Speaker 1: a lot of the products that we take for granted,
Speaker 1: these simple luxuries like a bouquet of flowers, a lot
Speaker 1: of times it does trace back to people, um not
Speaker 1: earning very much money. UH, And and that can be
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it's it's hard to justify in
Speaker 1: your mind because you can contextualize it and say, well,
Speaker 1: for those for those Kenyan women, that eighty dollars a
Speaker 1: month is really great, But should we be pushing for
Speaker 1: are somehow more for them? I don't know, higher wages
Speaker 1: that are safety precautions, Um, yeah, taking more procross precautions,
Speaker 1: excuse me, for pregnant women, right. And I think that's
Speaker 1: why it's hardening to see that organizations like fair Trade
Speaker 1: are going in they are, um, you know, you can
Speaker 1: actually find those kind of certified bouquets or of course
Speaker 1: if you want to, you can always go local and native. Yeah,
Speaker 1: by by your your lovey dovy person a potted plant. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because the thing is, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: people like people who buy flowers. Now. Granted, this study
Speaker 1: at Rutgers University in two thousand and six was funded
Speaker 1: by the Society of American Florists. Okay, but they did
Speaker 1: conclude that people perceive others based on the types of
Speaker 1: gifts they give, and flower givers rose straight to the top.
Speaker 1: We think of people who give flowers as making the
Speaker 1: best impression, and they are considered more likable, friendly, and
Speaker 1: emotionally intelligent. I love getting flowers. But it's funny because
Speaker 1: apparently a lot of people out there think that guys
Speaker 1: need help in this arena, because there are several everything
Speaker 1: from flower websites, from from flower companies themselves over to
Speaker 1: that website. The Art of Manliness, they've excited before, has
Speaker 1: told you know, guys, you really you really need a
Speaker 1: man up and buy some flowers for your lady. But
Speaker 1: don't just buy carnations. You better buy some lily. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And they suggest they do. They go over the meaning
Speaker 1: of different flowers, and I think that it was the
Speaker 1: Art of Manliness that suggested buying your lady friend one
Speaker 1: of those manuals about the meaning of the Victorian manuals
Speaker 1: on the meaning of flowers, making sure that you have
Speaker 1: the same one because they weren't all the same. So
Speaker 1: you don't want to offender and try to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, I think you're really dumb, but
Speaker 1: you know, like I don't know what flower would symbol dumbness.
Speaker 1: And he hands it to her upside down and oh,
Speaker 1: gods in the bow is tied the wrong way, you know,
Speaker 1: Just take take the pressure off and get her a
Speaker 1: chia pet. Oh God, nothing says I love you like
Speaker 1: a bearded potted plan exactly. That's what I say all
Speaker 1: the time. I have that knitted on a pillow. In fact,
Speaker 1: keep the expectations low, ladies, right, So, yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to know who out there is getting flowers for someone
Speaker 1: on Valentine's Day. And if you thought at all about
Speaker 1: the big line of places that it has been, well,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering now too, if we're accidentally dissuading people from
Speaker 1: giving flowers to their beloved. Well, maybe they'll go to
Speaker 1: a local florist, or maybe they'll make their own bouquet
Speaker 1: out of construction vapor. Yeah, I don't know. Let's combine
Speaker 1: the Martha Stewart podcast with this one. All you need
Speaker 1: some dried macarony and and that's a good thing. So
Speaker 1: hopefully you thought this podcast was a good thing, not
Speaker 1: to be a total downer on Valentine's Day. Eve. Either way,
Speaker 1: let us know your thoughts. Send us a Valentine how about? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know you can't send me flowers, I guess because
Speaker 1: that might take too long, But you can send us
Speaker 1: an E card. Mom stuff at Discovery dot com. Draw
Speaker 1: us a flower in MS paint like that very high tech.
Speaker 1: You can send it to Mom's Stuff at Discovery dot com.
Speaker 1: I repeat moms Stuff at Discovery dot com. I will
Speaker 1: be awaiting your MS paint roses. Yes, and we would
Speaker 1: like a guide of what each m S paint flower
Speaker 1: you have drawn means. Yes, hopefully it is all love
Speaker 1: and and dear man. Yeah, at least wait until after Balandia.
Speaker 1: So I've got an email here to read from Tina,
Speaker 1: And this is in response to our episode on gender
Speaker 1: differences in exercise. And Tina is a soccer player, an
Speaker 1: avid soccer player, and she brought up something that we
Speaker 1: came across in our research for that podcast but did
Speaker 1: not end up mentioning. In that episode, she writes, I
Speaker 1: can speak for the sport I know best, which is soccer.
Speaker 1: And after recently tearing my A c L and having
Speaker 1: to undergo surgical reconstruction, I learned a lot about how
Speaker 1: being a lady played into my injury. My surgeon told
Speaker 1: me that women are actually up to eight times more
Speaker 1: likely to tear their A c L in sport because
Speaker 1: of our biomechanics and weight distribution. Men tend to have
Speaker 1: stronger upper bodies, while women tend to carry their weight
Speaker 1: in the hip and thigh region, and this means that
Speaker 1: when a woman pivots or twists on her feet during
Speaker 1: a there's a lot more torque in the ligaments on
Speaker 1: the knee. This extra tension is what causes female soccer
Speaker 1: players to have more ligament injuries. And I guess I'm
Speaker 1: a living example of this. Because of this fact, my
Speaker 1: physiotherapist has told me that most female varsity teams at
Speaker 1: my university undergo some form of a seal and injury
Speaker 1: prevention training sessions to build up certain stabilizing muscles in
Speaker 1: their legs to counteract the torque on their ligaments. Ladies,
Speaker 1: got torque? That sounds so bad? Put that on a pillow. Uh.
Speaker 1: This this is from Janna. The subject line I'll let
Speaker 1: it speak for itself. This Jim gender pandemonium. She says,
Speaker 1: I'm a student at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, and
Speaker 1: we've had a bit of crisis on our hands up here.
Speaker 1: As students. We all have access to the gym on campus,
Speaker 1: which has a specific freeweights room that is often crowded
Speaker 1: by many guys. Well, a decision was made by the
Speaker 1: gym to promote more females to get into this kind
Speaker 1: of muscle toning workout, and so the gym began to
Speaker 1: offer female only hours on on peaked times. Oh sure,
Speaker 1: non peaked times. Well, it has been an uproar, she says.
Speaker 1: I thought it was funny and even laugh loudly when
Speaker 1: you said that boys are more upset when they miss
Speaker 1: their workouts. Because it has been crazy, guys have written
Speaker 1: our campus newspaper started a Facebook group in protest, calling
Speaker 1: this an act of reverse sexism. Now, mind you, they
Speaker 1: still have ninety two hours a week to have access
Speaker 1: to the room. I think they are being kind of silly,
Speaker 1: but each to their own I guess, I guess Jenna. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I asked Jenna to keep us informed to see whether
Speaker 1: or not the school caves to the Jinder Jim Gender pandemonium,
Speaker 1: Jim Jim Boree pandemonium. I just picture these people running
Speaker 1: around the gym with their hands in the air like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of a dance marathon now. So on that
Speaker 1: note again, our email addresses mom stuff at Discovery dot com.
Speaker 1: If you have a letter or valentine to send our way,
Speaker 1: or you can send us a Valentine up on the Facebooks.
Speaker 1: We'd like that. Why don't you send us a Valentine
Speaker 1: by liking us? That would be the best Valentine's present
Speaker 1: you could possibly give to me and Caroline. We would
Speaker 1: love you for that. And you can also follow us
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Mom's Stuff Podcast, and you can check
Speaker 1: out the blog during the week. It is at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has
Speaker 1: a ride. Download it today on iTunes.