The Real Cost Of A Rose
Inside the Billion-Dollar Global Flower Industry
A bouquet of flowers is the go-to gift for many occasions, but the world is paying a high price for out of season blooms. We go behind the scenes of the billion-dollar flower trade to reveal the true cost of flowers we buy.
The global flower industry is booming, but at what cost? In the Netherlands, the global epicentre of the flower trade, growers struggle with rising energy costs and the pressure to reduce carbon footprints. But in Kenya, the stakes are deeply personal, with a largely female workforce severely underpaid and often forced to turn to dangerous professions such as sex work. “I’ve seen pay slips where women are taking home less than $5 a month”, says Mary Kambo, a Kenyan Human Rights advocate. These conditions force workers to give into sexual demands, “not because it's consented, but because they're desperate”. Esther, a farm worker with asthma, must choose between buying her medication or paying her rent, as her health suffers from the cold storage rooms and pesticide exposure. “A woman’s sweat has gone into producing that rose”, continues Mary Kambo: “the real cost is the life of a human being”. This documentary exposes the human and environmental sacrifices behind out of season flowers.
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