Flowers for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or just because are always a pretty thing for a short time, but are not a good thing for the planet and many in the supply chain.

Why should I pay attention to Fairtrade when it comes to cut flowers? Growing and harvesting flowers is exhausting and intense work as you can imagine. Flower growing is an important business in many countries of the Global South, providing employment for many. Unfortunately, the working conditions and wages are often extremely critical and not flowery at all. if Bouquets at discounters are offered from as little as 2 euros, one can imagine that savings are being made in many areas. As in the textile industry, workers often suffer the most and awareness of "fair flowers" is still very low compared to awareness of other commodities such as coffee or bananas.

So what to look for? Or never flowers again?

Since it is difficult to see from the flowers where they actually come from and under what conditions they were grown, you should rely on seals when buying flowers. When you start looking for such seals, you quickly realize that most of the flowers come from conventional cultivation.

Fairtrade is always a good start for secure seals that most people can recognize and classify. Fairtrade certified flower farms grow the flowers to stricter standards. This includes:

• Occupational health and safety: Fairtrade advocates permanent employment contracts, freedom of assembly and trade unions, maternity protection and clear working time regulations. Safety is improved by requiring protective clothing and promoting training in the safe use of chemicals.
• Strict environmental criteria: The Fairtrade-certified farms must adhere to strict environmental criteria, such as water-saving irrigation, sewage treatment plants, compost and waste management.
• Fairtrade premium for community projects: The importer has to pay an extra Fairtrade Premium. This benefits the workforce directly, because the Fairtrade Premium Committee, elected by the employees, decides where the money is used.
• Step by step to a living wage: Flower farms that are Fairtrade certified must pay at least the statutory minimum wage. However, the minimum wage is often still below the level that secures a living. In order not to jeopardize the competitiveness of the farms, the farmers are gradually increasing their wages until they reach a living wage that is appropriate for the region.

If in doubt, it's better to leave the flowers and give something else, like organic seeds to grow yourself.