1-800-Flowers Agrees to Provide Exploitation-Free Flowers

After over 50,000 Change.org members sent emails to 1-800-Flowers asking them to offer petals untainted by exploitation, child labor, sexual assault, and slavery, the company has stepped up to the plate and become a leader for ethical sourcing practices overnight. In time for Mother's Day, you'll be able to send that special lady in your life a bouquet of fair trade flowers courtesy of America's largest floral retailer.

1-800-Flowers told Change.org that they had indeed offered fair trade flowers in the past, but canceled the offering due to a lack of consumer response. With tens of thousands of emails from Change.org members demonstrating that people really do care about the ethics of their blossoms, they've decided to give it another go. The company has agreed to work with labor rights organizations and design an industry code of conduct, and also launched a brand-new page on their site to provide consumers with information about where they currently source their flowers, including info on social and environmental certifications. You can thanks them via their Facebook page or tweeting @1800Flowers.

As we reported before, while flowers might be pretty, the cut flower industry's abuses aren't. Sourced primarily from Latin and South America or Africa, these flowers are picked primarily by female workers who labor overtime for little pay. Working with pesticides without protections causes serious health problems in a majority of workers and forced labor is not uncommon. In Ecuador, one infamous country for cut flowers, children make up one-fifth of the workforce, while two-thirds of the female employees report sexual abuse or harassment. Raising awareness of these exploitative and harmful conditions gives a new meaning to "wake up and smell the roses."

Photo credit: audreyjm529