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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?

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Speaker 1: From House Stepworks dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline, and may I also say

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Speaker 1: Happy Valentine's Day. Eve. Wait, thank you? You welcome? Are

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Speaker 1: you gonna get me anything? Um, I'm gonna give you

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Speaker 1: a podcast straight from the heart. Oh yeah, well we

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Speaker 1: better get started then, yeah. Uh. And today we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk about flowers, because it is the typical Valentine's

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Speaker 1: Day gift from one beloved to another or just to

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Speaker 1: a friend. My dad sometimes will send me flowers on

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Speaker 1: Valentine's Day, which is always a kind gesture. Um. But

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Speaker 1: Valentine's Day also reminds me of high school because is

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Speaker 1: I don't know how your school worked, Caroline, but mine

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Speaker 1: it was a really big deal, and it was a

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Speaker 1: big deal that made me probably unnecessarily so, but it

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Speaker 1: made me really uncomfortable because there was this competitive edge

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Speaker 1: too Valentine's Day because the whole week or two beforehand,

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Speaker 1: kids would go around whatever kind of like class officers

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Speaker 1: would go around and they would sell carnations, for a

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Speaker 1: dollar that you could give to other classmates. So obviously

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Speaker 1: all little high school sweethearts would give each other carnations

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Speaker 1: and you would either get them in white for friendship,

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Speaker 1: pink for love, and read for passion. In high school, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so you always kept your fingers crossed that your

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Speaker 1: crush was going to give you a red one, that

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Speaker 1: there would be a random red rope or credit scene. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: random carnation, uh, sitting in your locker. The most popular

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Speaker 1: kids would have collected just a bundle of carnations by

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Speaker 1: the end of the day. So yeah, I really those

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Speaker 1: that kind of obvious competition where you can count up

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Speaker 1: your number of friends and lovers always really put me

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Speaker 1: on edge. So that's what I associate valca'see with cheap

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Speaker 1: carnations and high school angst. Interesting, I said, see, And

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Speaker 1: it was buying a new shirt with a heart on

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Speaker 1: it every year, wearing it to school. Do you wear

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Speaker 1: Valentine's themed clothes? Not anymore? But now we um in

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Speaker 1: well know, I'm sorry. That was middle school and middle

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Speaker 1: school we had we had dances, and so I would

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Speaker 1: always buy like a heart themed T shirt because I

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Speaker 1: was really cool like that. And now we just have

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Speaker 1: those celebrity montage movies that we can watch by ourselves

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Speaker 1: with the bottle of wine at a terrible movie. Valentine's Day, obviously,

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Speaker 1: is one of the largest days in the floral industry,

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Speaker 1: seconded only by Mother's Day. And just to give a

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Speaker 1: hint of how we're going to turn this Valentine's bouquet

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Speaker 1: into a withered handful of terrifying facts. Um, we know

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Speaker 1: the vald Tine's Day is really really booming for the

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Speaker 1: floral industry because women on the plantations in Africa and

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Speaker 1: South America harvesting all those flowers have been working up

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Speaker 1: to sixty hours a week in preparation for it. Some

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Speaker 1: of the flower farms in South America triple the number

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Speaker 1: of workers, most of them women, leading up to Valentine's Day.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, January, February, March late and lead you know

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Speaker 1: then leading up to Mother's Day. It's big business. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: just I mean, if that doesn't doesn't warm your heart

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Speaker 1: for this romantic occasion. But let's go back to a

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Speaker 1: simpler time. Yes, the Victorian era, so simple and yet

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Speaker 1: so repressed, and that's what leads us to floriography, which

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Speaker 1: is the language of flowers, and in the Victorian area era,

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Speaker 1: excuse me, it was really popular to give flowers that

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Speaker 1: had meaning. You know, you've all I feel like everybody's

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Speaker 1: heard about you know, different flowers have different meanings, and

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Speaker 1: you know you mentioned the different colors of carnations, the

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Speaker 1: same thing for roses. Different rose colors have meaning everything

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Speaker 1: from from sympathy and remembrance to love and passion. Well,

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Speaker 1: in the Victorian era, you know, emotions that couldn't be vocalized.

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Speaker 1: You know, you couldn't just walk up to somebody be like,

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Speaker 1: I love you. I mean, maybe you could if you

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Speaker 1: were like that, if you were very full award um.

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Speaker 1: But people tended to give their their their crush or

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Speaker 1: whatever um a bouquet that meant something, and everything from

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Speaker 1: the flower ors themselves down to the way you handed

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Speaker 1: the bouquet over meant something. So the way you tied

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Speaker 1: the bow, the hand you used, and God forbid you

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Speaker 1: handed the bouquet over upside down, that was just what

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Speaker 1: that meant, the opposite of what the flowers were supposed

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Speaker 1: to mean. You give someone an opposite day bouquet, fairly

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Speaker 1: fairly opposite Day's been around a lot longer than I thought,

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Speaker 1: I mean talk about salt in the wound, I know,

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Speaker 1: but okay, so so every you know, bouquets of flowers

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Speaker 1: had a lot of meaning, and Beverly Seaton, in her

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Speaker 1: book The Language of Flowers History, talks about how home

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Speaker 1: manuals of the time illustrated very elaborate arrangements of cut flowers.

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Speaker 1: So if you were high falutin, if you were in

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Speaker 1: high society, you were expected to have a lot of

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Speaker 1: cut flowers in your home. But not just in faces,

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Speaker 1: not just going to the store and putting them in

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Speaker 1: a glass of water. Now, you were expected to have

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Speaker 1: these elaborate arrangements because you were expected to either have

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Speaker 1: the um the help around your house to help you

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Speaker 1: arrange them, or you were expected to take the time

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Speaker 1: to do it yourself to have these beautiful floral arrangements

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Speaker 1: in your home. And this also wasn't just a product

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Speaker 1: of Western domesticity. It reminds me of ikubana, which is

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Speaker 1: the Japanese art of flower arranging, which is one of

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Speaker 1: the typical skills acquired by geishas. Yeah, it's it was

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Speaker 1: definitely uh also seen as a womanly pursuit. But I

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Speaker 1: want to know what some flowers mean if you were

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Speaker 1: to give me a special bouquet, if I were to

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Speaker 1: give you an iris, it would mean that I had faith,

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Speaker 1: hope and wisdom in you, or hoped to impart that

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Speaker 1: to you. Carnations, which there's a lot of talk of

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Speaker 1: carnations and sex in the city, and we'll go into it,

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Speaker 1: but carnations symbolize love and fascination, and there's a difference

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Speaker 1: between a striped carnation and a solid one. But I

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Speaker 1: can't recall that. One of my favorite flowers is the

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Speaker 1: gerber A daisy, and there's you know, a million different colors.

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Speaker 1: Those signify beauty, innocence, and cheerfulness. Yeah, you're all three

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Speaker 1: of those right up in a daisy, Caroline blushing. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's actually the Gerbera daisy is the fifth most popular

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Speaker 1: flower in the world, in the whole world, and according

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Speaker 1: to literature, it was discovered in eighty four by a

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Speaker 1: Scotsman in South Africa, even though I'm pretty sure other

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Speaker 1: people had probably seen the flower before. But yeah, the

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Speaker 1: Gerbera daisy as we know it today, and it's been

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Speaker 1: bread and mixed. Said that, that's why we have so

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Speaker 1: many colors and orchids rare and delicate beauty roses of

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Speaker 1: course love and appreciation, and they range like I said,

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Speaker 1: red is love, pink, admiration, etcetera, etcetera. So the floral

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Speaker 1: industry traces all the way back to the seventeenth and

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Speaker 1: eighteenth century. Uh. It's starting off, not surprisingly in the

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Speaker 1: Netherlands with the development of greenhouses, and that practice then

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Speaker 1: is taken to the United States. Um And one fun

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Speaker 1: fact about the the Netherlands are all known for their tulips,

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Speaker 1: and tulip comes from the Turkish word for durban really

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Speaker 1: because it was initially um taken from Central Asia and

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Speaker 1: then across to Holland. I do love a good tulip,

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Speaker 1: and I don't mean turban, I mean tulip um. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The industry really grew in America with the advent of

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Speaker 1: air transport and refrigerated trucks, so now you could take

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Speaker 1: them much longer distances in a short amount of time.

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Speaker 1: You didn't have to worry about them, Wilton, because flowers

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Speaker 1: pretty much have to be kept around thirty four degrees

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Speaker 1: basically right about freezing when they're being transported. And in

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Speaker 1: the mid nineteen sixties, you know, we've got all the

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Speaker 1: development of where where this industry is moving. And in

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Speaker 1: the mid nineteen sixties the first carnation production started in Bogata, Columbia,

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Speaker 1: an area that offered great light and temperature, not to

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Speaker 1: mention low production costs compared with North America. UM and

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Speaker 1: large fail US producers are hard hit by all of

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Speaker 1: the flowers that are being import it and the floral industry,

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Speaker 1: like so many other industries here in the States, has

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Speaker 1: largely been outsourced. UM California produces of the domestic flowers

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Speaker 1: grown here, but it's it's largely moved abroad and UM.

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Speaker 1: One place that I did not realize was such a

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Speaker 1: major hub of the international floral industry is Kenya. If

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Speaker 1: you live in the EU, if you're listening right now

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Speaker 1: in the UK, hello, talking directly to you. If you

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Speaker 1: have If you're looking right now at a vase of flowers,

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Speaker 1: British friends and Irish friends and Welsh ones too, chances

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Speaker 1: are they came from Kenya. Now, if Caroline and I

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Speaker 1: here in the States, we're looking at some some flowers

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Speaker 1: and fresh cut well not so fresh cut roses, they

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Speaker 1: be coming from South America. But Kenya supplies of all

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Speaker 1: the flowers sold in the EU right, and there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of talk about as you can expect, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of talk about the environmental impact of importing all

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Speaker 1: of these flowers. UM. But it's interesting that UM twelve

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Speaker 1: thousand Kenyon roses that creates raising them, you know, whatever,

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Speaker 1: growing them, that creates third two hundred pounds of carbon

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Speaker 1: dioxide released from from the growth of these roses. The

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Speaker 1: equivalent number of Dutch roses releases seventy seven thousand, one

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty pounds of c O two because they

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Speaker 1: require all that artificial light, heat and cooling over the

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Speaker 1: eight to twelve week growing period, so you don't have

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Speaker 1: the hot sun that's constant in Kenya and in Colombia.

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Speaker 1: So while you're you're importing all these roses and you

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Speaker 1: you might think it's horrible for various reasons that we

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Speaker 1: will get into here shortly. UM. It actually releases less

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Speaker 1: uh c O two into the atmosphere because they have

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Speaker 1: to tinker with that actual growing environment, less UM which

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Speaker 1: would outweigh them the cost I guess of transporting it,

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Speaker 1: of producing them and transporting them over UM. And this

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Speaker 1: is coming from the Globe and Mail in Canada, imported

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Speaker 1: twenty three point five million dollars worth of roses from Columbia,

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Speaker 1: and almost a third of all cut flowers sold in

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Speaker 1: Canada are imported from Columbia, including fourteen point one million

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Speaker 1: dollars worth of carnations and nine point six million dollars

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Speaker 1: worth of chrystanthemums. And the government has incentivized uh this

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Speaker 1: floral trade between Canada and Columbia because their free trade

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Speaker 1: agreement that they recently signed removed a ten point five

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Speaker 1: percent tariff on roses. So it's even cheaper now for

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Speaker 1: them to bring these flowers way up uh the land,

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Speaker 1: way of way up the lands. But we we did

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Speaker 1: the same thing in one um. The US really was

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Speaker 1: seeking to offset all the coca production in Colombia, and

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Speaker 1: so we thought, I mean, I don't know what they thought,

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Speaker 1: but they were like, hey, well, let's just have them

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Speaker 1: make flowers instead, And so we suspended import duties on

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Speaker 1: Colombian flowers. And this was in and just just to

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Speaker 1: show you what that did to flower imports in the US,

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Speaker 1: in ninety one, the US produced one point to billion

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Speaker 1: flowers and imported one hundred million, and in two thousand

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Speaker 1: three that totally reversed the US was producing two hundred

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Speaker 1: million blooms and imported two billion. That's according to the Smithsonian,

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Speaker 1: who took a big look at um the flower trade.

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Speaker 1: And now, according to the Society of American Florist, Columbia,

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Speaker 1: not so surprisingly is the number one import country of

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Speaker 1: flowers to the United States, comprising sixty five percent of

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Speaker 1: that trade, followed by Ecuador at sixteen percent scent and

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Speaker 1: the Netherlands at six percent. And then we actually get

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Speaker 1: four percent of our flowers from from Canada. So I

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Speaker 1: wonder if Canada is is somehow kidding some flowers from

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Speaker 1: Colombia and then marking them up and selling them to us.

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Speaker 1: You're saying that we're going to recycle Valentine's Day flowers.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, Canada, what's behind this? What's going on? Canadians?

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Speaker 1: Let us know? UM, there is. There is quite a

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Speaker 1: process in all of this. Um. It involves chemicals, lots

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Speaker 1: of transportation, and a lot of labor. This is from

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Speaker 1: the New Statesman, which describes the process and says that

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Speaker 1: flowers are typically harvested, de leafed, semi dehydrated in refrigeration units,

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Speaker 1: steeped in chemicals, packed in boxes, sometimes by machinery and

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Speaker 1: sent in refrigerated trucks to the airport. That's already that's

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Speaker 1: already quite a lot of stuff. Yeah, and then once

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Speaker 1: they get to the supermarkets and floris where they're sold,

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Speaker 1: they are usually chemically rehydrated and in the weeks preceding St.

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Speaker 1: Valentine's Days. St. Valentine's Day, so proper, proper, because that's

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Speaker 1: how I am h and Mother's Day. Women on the

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Speaker 1: plantations in Africa and South America frequently work sixty hours

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Speaker 1: a week, like you said, So that's all part of

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Speaker 1: this huge I have never I'm so ignorant. I mean

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Speaker 1: I I just haven't thought about it. You know, when

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Speaker 1: you go to the grocery. I like to buy flowers

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Speaker 1: at the grocery store all the time. I never thought

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Speaker 1: of this huge, long process. And so that's why I

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Speaker 1: think it's important to talk about stuff like this, because

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Speaker 1: something so simple as just buying a bunch of daisies

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Speaker 1: while you're getting your grocery shopping done, there's a lot.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot behind that, just like there is with

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Speaker 1: your food. Of course. Well, I'm thinking about them going

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Speaker 1: through the process of being semi dehydrated and then chemically rehydrated.

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Speaker 1: That blows my mind. Yeah, it's because they found this

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Speaker 1: great growing location with all this sunlight and constant temperature.

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Speaker 1: But then they have to get out to all the

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Speaker 1: people who want to spend the money on it. And

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Speaker 1: Americans and Europeans been just millions of dollars every year

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Speaker 1: on flowers which are mostly just to feel good purchase.

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Speaker 1: It's not like we need it, but you know, it's

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Speaker 1: how and somebody, And that's the big question of is

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Speaker 1: it is it really helping someone? Um? Or are we

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Speaker 1: because of this luxury purchase? Are we destroying the environment

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Speaker 1: and perpetuating low wage um industries that treat women unfairly?

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Speaker 1: And we will get to the bottom of this um.

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Speaker 1: This is in scientific Americans. Stewart Or of the World

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Speaker 1: Wildlife Fund International, sums it up this way. He and

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Speaker 1: this is talking specifically about Kenya and Lake Naivasha, which

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Speaker 1: is where a lot of those flower farms are located around.

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Speaker 1: He says it's one of the most perfect places to

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Speaker 1: grow flowers at a high altitude with plenty of water

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Speaker 1: and sunshine, and flower farms employ people and generate income great, excellent,

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Speaker 1: but they're also big water and pesticide users, right, and

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Speaker 1: like you said, Kristen Kenya supplies of Europe's cut flowers.

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Speaker 1: That's that's a very large chunk and the best are

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Speaker 1: sold to flourish through Dutch auctions and then not so

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Speaker 1: perfect end up in European supermarkets. So you know, same

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Speaker 1: thing with me buying daisies at the grocery store Gerbera

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Speaker 1: daisies to be exact, Yes, beauty and innocence. Um. But

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Speaker 1: at the Assyrian farm on Lake Naivasha. This is from

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Speaker 1: Scientific American also roses. They talk about the the environmental

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Speaker 1: impact and what companies are are seeking to do to

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Speaker 1: offset some of this impact. Roses are now grown with

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Speaker 1: geothermal waste heat to save energy and no roses are

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Speaker 1: raised within a third of a mile of the lake

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Speaker 1: to prevent pesticide runoff from reaching it. But it hasn't

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Speaker 1: always been like this. Um. There were some alarm bills

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Speaker 1: that were raised in two thousand three which were largely

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Speaker 1: attributed to a special report in the Guardian newspaper about

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Speaker 1: worker conditions, and it was specifically conditions for female workers

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Speaker 1: that make up a bulk of that labor force. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the the Guardian made public concerns about chemical spraying, long

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Speaker 1: working hours, and harassment of female workers who were working

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Speaker 1: under male supervisors. And concerns remain over wages today and

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Speaker 1: whether the large flower companies are paying their fair share

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Speaker 1: of taxes um. But let's look at two thousand nine

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Speaker 1: as far as the lake goes that supplies all of

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Speaker 1: the water to these flower farms in kenya Um. In

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Speaker 1: two thousand nine, a major drought shrank the size of

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Speaker 1: the lake two levels they hadn't seen since the nineteen

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Speaker 1: But that was been followed by a major storm that

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Speaker 1: washed sewage and possibly chemical residue from the farms into

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Speaker 1: the lake. So here you're you're they're using all this water,

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Speaker 1: but then all of a sudden it's polluted, endangering all

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Speaker 1: the ecosystems. And just to give listeners an idea of

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Speaker 1: how much Lake Naivasha has been affected, not just because

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Speaker 1: of the flower farming, but also because of that drought

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Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, it has receded over one mile

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Speaker 1: and ken is really trying to revitalize that ecosystem while

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Speaker 1: sustaining these flower farms, which are so important. I want

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Speaker 1: to say that the floral industry is the fifth largest

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Speaker 1: in Kenya, it's very important for for their economy. And

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Speaker 1: depending on what flower farm you work at in Kenya,

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Speaker 1: you might have a great situation. There are some farms

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Speaker 1: that provide worker housing, education for their children, playgrounds, UM benefits. UH.

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Speaker 1: There are some that are transitioning more to permanent employment

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Speaker 1: instead of using contract work, but that's obviously not true

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Speaker 1: across the board UM, and so there's still a lot

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Speaker 1: of concerns about wages and fairness and UM female workers

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Speaker 1: and the things that they have to deal with. But

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Speaker 1: UM the environmental issues with the lake. It has led

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Speaker 1: a couple of companies to start investing a lot of

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Speaker 1: money and sustainability efforts. And there's the company Flamingo Homegrown

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Speaker 1: UH does follow fair trade standards UH and the company

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Speaker 1: says that it has slashed pesticide use, replaced contract positions

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Speaker 1: with permanent ones like I was just saying, and made

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Speaker 1: efforts to actually train and promote women's supervisors. But UM

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Speaker 1: University of Lester ecologists David Harper still has some concerns

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Speaker 1: and in February eleven he basically said that the UK's

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Speaker 1: demand for fresh flowers was bleeding Lake Naivasha dry and

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Speaker 1: he's urging the supermarkets that are buying these flowers to

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Speaker 1: take more responsibility by promoting policies that would help conserve

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Speaker 1: the lake's ecosystem. So he's saying that the people who

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Speaker 1: are selling you the flowers in your own country need

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Speaker 1: to be more responsible. Right, People who are worried from

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Speaker 1: the more environmental standpoint can look out for flowers that

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Speaker 1: are fair trade certified, or you can go local or

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Speaker 1: and buy more native plants that are native to your

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Speaker 1: the ecosystems that you're living in. Obviously you can buy

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Speaker 1: plants from and flowers from low coal greenhouses and other

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Speaker 1: things like that. But let's let's turn now to another

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Speaker 1: part of the world. In Columbia and Ecuador have a

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Speaker 1: very similar situation to the one in Kenya, which is,

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Speaker 1: like we said, the the environment, the growing situation is perfect.

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Speaker 1: It's on a it's on a savannah. There's plenty of

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Speaker 1: water and sunshine and constant temperatures. But we've got the

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Speaker 1: same issues with pollution, pesticides, female workers, all of that.

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Speaker 1: And I thought it was fascinating how the Colombian floral

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Speaker 1: trade got started. This is coming from a report in

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Speaker 1: the Smithsonian magazine, and it all began because a guy

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Speaker 1: named David Schiever wrote a term paper in grad school

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven suggesting that the savannah near Bogatat

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Speaker 1: was an ideal spot to grow flowers to sell the

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Speaker 1: US because it had an excellent climate. The flowers would

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Speaker 1: take off and they could apply assembly lines and modern shipping.

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Speaker 1: PRAC just says to to get things going. And boy,

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Speaker 1: howdy was David Chiever right? Yeah? He he and three

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Speaker 1: partners started Flora America, which used assembly lines and modern shipping.

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Speaker 1: So right off the bat, they're like, we're going to

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Speaker 1: make the model tea of flowers. And it really, it

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Speaker 1: really took off. And now Colombia is the second largest

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Speaker 1: exporter of cut flowers, behind only the Netherlands, and it

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Speaker 1: commands of the U S market, which you know, or

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Speaker 1: sixty five depending on where you're getting your where you're

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Speaker 1: getting your numbers, so it's between sixty five and stuff.

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Speaker 1: So basically a lot lot flowers. Uh. And this employs

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Speaker 1: more than a hundred thousand people working in the greenhouses,

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Speaker 1: and the majority of folks who are trying to work

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Speaker 1: there have been women, many of whom are single mothers.

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Speaker 1: And this is where the you know, this issue of

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Speaker 1: what kind of female labor we are supporting when we're

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Speaker 1: buying all of these Valentine's Day Mother's Day flowers. Um,

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Speaker 1: Because on the one hand, employment for single moms that

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Speaker 1: sounds great. It is needed. Economists have gone and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is a new form of job opportunities that would

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Speaker 1: not be there otherwise. Not necessarily a bad thing. But

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Speaker 1: according to the International Labor Rights Fund, the typical South

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Speaker 1: American flower picker um is unmarried, she's got an elementary

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Speaker 1: school education, and she has three or more children, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of times she's not making enough money to

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Speaker 1: really support herself and her family. Right, women at the

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Speaker 1: at the farm MG consul tories were surveyed and they

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Speaker 1: found that most had previously worked on substance subsistence farms

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Speaker 1: or as maids, jobs that paid lower wages than in

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Speaker 1: the flower industry. But we have to ask, which is

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Speaker 1: exactly the point you raised, are these the right kind

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Speaker 1: of jobs? Uh? You know it. It is wonderful that

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Speaker 1: single mothers can have employment, but if they're being exposed

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Speaker 1: to pesticides and being hunched over all day with the rippers,

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Speaker 1: I mean, are we again, it's it's kind of a

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Speaker 1: toss up. They're getting employed, they're getting paid, but it's

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Speaker 1: putting their children in their own health at risk. So

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Speaker 1: for those sixty hour weeks that they're working, um, in

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Speaker 1: anticipation of Valentine's Day. Not to be a total Valentine's

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Speaker 1: Day down er, um, but these women are making minimum wage.

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Speaker 1: They're working obviously long hours, and a lot of them

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Speaker 1: will suffer repetitive stress injuries with no treatment or time off,

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Speaker 1: and if they do try to get any kind of treatment,

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Speaker 1: they will be asked to not come up come back. Um.

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Speaker 1: And there are also stories and this is from um,

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Speaker 1: that two thousand three Guardian article that really raised alarm bells.

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Speaker 1: And things have gotten a little bit better, um, but

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Speaker 1: you know, some women were saying that when inspections would

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Speaker 1: happen to make sure working conditions were safe and equitable,

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Speaker 1: the supervisors would ask certain people to stay home so

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Speaker 1: things would would look more above board. Um. One of

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Speaker 1: those things that's not looking above board is that as

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Speaker 1: recently as the mid nineties, a Colombian sociologists found children

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Speaker 1: as young as nine working in the greenhouses on Saturdays,

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Speaker 1: and children eleven and of working forty six hour work weeks.

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Speaker 1: So it's not only um, you know, taking advantage of

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Speaker 1: women cheap labor from women, but also from children. Um.

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Speaker 1: But talking about that exposure to chemicals. UM. One survey

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Speaker 1: of nine thousand flower workers found that they had been

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Speaker 1: exposed to as many as one hundred and twenty seven

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Speaker 1: different chemicals, mostly fungicides and pesticides. And this is echoed.

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Speaker 1: The problems that come from this have been echoed in

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Speaker 1: several studies. Right. UM, you might be thinking, oh, a

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Speaker 1: survey that's totally outdated. Well here about how about this

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Speaker 1: two thousand nine University of Mexico study finding that women

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Speaker 1: working in the flower industry in Ecuador reported more pregnancy

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Speaker 1: losses than among women out side the industry, and the

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Speaker 1: researchers linked that to the need for an evaluation of

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Speaker 1: the reproductive health effects of employment in that specific industry

404
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:14,879
Speaker 1: linked to pesticide use. Right, yeah, if you're going to

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Speaker 1: have this population doing this work, we should definitely take

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Speaker 1: a look at how to make it safer. Um At

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Speaker 1: two thousand six study of female flower workers in Ecuador.

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Speaker 1: This was study. The study was published in Pediatrics found

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Speaker 1: that a pregnant woman's exposure to pesticides was associated with

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Speaker 1: the child's neurological impairment and higher blood pressure later in life.

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Speaker 1: And of course we know that higher blood pressure can

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Speaker 1: you know if if if it stays, it can eventually

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Speaker 1: lead to cardiovascular problems. And in addition to UH these

414
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 1: kind of pesticide exposures and those repetitive stress injuries, there were,

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Speaker 1: according to the Smithsonian magazine, also a lot of reports

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Speaker 1: of sexual harassment by male bosses. UM. But again, these

417
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Speaker 1: are these are issues that a lot of companies have

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Speaker 1: tried to go in and rectify, but largely because watchdog

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Speaker 1: groups have been formed to pay attention to these kind

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Speaker 1: of working conditions, right, and I mean as far as

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Speaker 1: creating better work environments. You know, we talked about several

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Speaker 1: of the companies in Kenya that are really seeking to

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Speaker 1: be sustainable to help their workers and the workers families. UM.

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Speaker 1: According to that Smithsonian article, the flower industry in Columbia

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Speaker 1: created floor Verde, a voluntary certification program that requires participating

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Speaker 1: farms to meet targets for sustainable water use and follow

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Speaker 1: internationally recognized safety guidelines for chemical applications. So there are

428
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: people really trying to um improve the quality of their

429
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 1: workers lives and going back to the situation in Kenya

430
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:58,040
Speaker 1: the Economist magazine was talking about, but more the the

431
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: importance of the ural industry and kind of an unstable

432
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 1: economy over there, and the report that the average monthly

433
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 1: salary of eighty dollars plus benefits is actually considered a

434
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: good wage. UM. So I guess that's why, um it

435
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:18,639
Speaker 1: was it was challenging to weigh the pros and the

436
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,200
Speaker 1: cons of what's going on in this industry because whenever

437
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,720
Speaker 1: we trace back a lot of the products that we

438
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 1: take for granted, these simple luxuries like a bouquet of flowers,

439
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 1: a lot of times it does trace back to people, um,

440
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: not earning very much money. Uh. And and that can

441
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: be I don't know, it's it's it's hard to justify

442
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 1: in your mind because you can contextualize it and say, well,

443
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,959
Speaker 1: for those for those Kenyan women, that eighty dollars a

444
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 1: month is really great, But should we be pushing for

445
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: somehow more for them, I don't know, higher wages, better

446
00:27:54,640 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: safety precautions. Um yeah, taking more across and precautions excuse me,

447
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 1: for pregnant women, right. And I think that's why it's

448
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: hardening to see that organizations like fair trade are going

449
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,439
Speaker 1: in they are um, you know, you can actually find

450
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 1: those kind of certified bouquets, or of course if you

451
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: want to, you can always go local and native by

452
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 1: by your your love e dovy person a potted plant. Yeah,

453
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 1: because the thing is, at the end of the day,

454
00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:32,160
Speaker 1: people like people who buy flowers. H now granted. This

455
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: study at Rutgers University in two thousands six was funded

456
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 1: by the Society of American flora'sts okay, but they did

457
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: conclude that people perceive others based on the types of

458
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: gifts they give, and flower givers rose straight to the top.

459
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: We think of people who give flowers as making the

460
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 1: best impression, and they are considered more likable, friendly, and

461
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: emotion really intelligent. I love getting flowers. But it's funny

462
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: because apparently a lot of people out there think that

463
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,120
Speaker 1: guys need help in this arena, because there are several

464
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: everything from flower websites, from from flower companies themselves over

465
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: to that website. The art of Manliness and decided before

466
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 1: has told you know, guys, you really you really need

467
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 1: a man up and buy some flowers for your lady.

468
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: But don't just buy carnations. You better buy some lily. Yeah,

469
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: and they suggest they do. They go over the meaning

470
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: of different flowers. And I think that it was the

471
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: art of manliness that suggested buying your lady friend one

472
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 1: of those manuals about the meaning of the Victorian manuals

473
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 1: on the meaning of flowers, making sure that you have

474
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: the same one because they weren't all the same. So

475
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 1: you don't want to offend her and try to say that,

476
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, I think you're really dumb, but

477
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: you know, like god, I don't know what flower would

478
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 1: symbolize the dumbness. And he hands it to her upside

479
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: down and the oh gods in the bow is time

480
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 1: the wrong way? You know? Just take take the pressure

481
00:29:56,400 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: off and get her a chia pet. Oh god, noth says,

482
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: I love you like a bearded potted play exactly. That's

483
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 1: what I say all the time. I have that knitted

484
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: on a pillow back to you'd be expectations low, ladies, right,

485
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,719
Speaker 1: So yeah, I want to know who out there is

486
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 1: getting flowers for someone on Valentine's Day. And if you

487
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: thought at all about the big line of places that

488
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: it has been, well, I'm wondering now too, if we're

489
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: accidentally dissuading people from giving flowers to their beloved. Well,

490
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 1: maybe they'll go to a local florist, or maybe they'll

491
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: make their own bouquet out of construction papor. Yeah, I

492
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 1: don't know. Let's combine the Martha Stewart podcast with this one.

493
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 1: All you need is some dried macaron and that's a

494
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 1: good thing. So hopefully you thought this podcast was a

495
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: good thing, not to be a total downer on Valentine's

496
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: Day eve. Either way, let us know your thoughts. Send

497
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: us a Valentine how about? Yeah, you know you can't

498
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: send me flowers, I guess because that might take too long.

499
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 1: But you can send us an E card Mom Stuff

500
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com. Draw us the flower and MS

501
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: paint I like that, very high tech. You can send

502
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: it to Mom's stuff at Discovery dot com. I repeat

503
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 1: moms stuff at Discovery dot com. I will be awaiting

504
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: your MS paint roses. Yes, and we would like a

505
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,360
Speaker 1: guide of what each m S paint flower you have

506
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 1: drawn means. Yes, hopefully it is all love and endearment

507
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: obtain Yeah, at least wait until after BALI. So I've

508
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:49,720
Speaker 1: got an email here to read from Tina, and this

509
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 1: is in response to our episode on gender differences in

510
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: exercise and Tina is a soccer player and avid soccer player,

511
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 1: and she brought up something that we came across in

512
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: our research for that podcast, but did not end up mentioning.

513
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 1: In that episode, she writes, I can speak for the

514
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: sport I know best, which is soccer, and after recently

515
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: tearing my A c L and having to undergo surgical reconstruction,

516
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about how being a lady played

517
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: into my injury. My surgeon told me that women are

518
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 1: actually up to eight times more likely to tear their

519
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: A c L in sport because of our biomechanics and

520
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: weight distribution. Men tend to have stronger upper bodies, while

521
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 1: women tend to carry their weight in the hip and

522
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: thigh region, and this means that when a woman pivots

523
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: or twists on her feet during a sport, there's a

524
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: lot more torque in the ligaments on the knee. This

525
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 1: extra tension is what causes female soccer players to have

526
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: more ligament injuries, and I guess I'm a living example

527
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: of this. Because of this fact, my physiotherapist has told

528
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: me that most female varsity teams at my university undergo

529
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 1: some form of a cl and injury prevention training sessions

530
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 1: to build up certain stable ysing muscles in their legs

531
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: to counteract the torque on their ligaments. Ladies, got torque?

532
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: That sounds so bad? Put that on a pillow. Uh.

533
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 1: This this is from Janna. The subject line, I'll let

534
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: it speak for itself is jim gender pandemonium. She says.

535
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: I'm a student at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, and

536
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: we've had a bit of crisis on our hands up here.

537
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: As students. We all have access to the gym on campus,

538
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,520
Speaker 1: which has a specific freeweights room that is often crowded

539
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: by many guys. Well, the decision was made by the

540
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: gym to promote more females to get into this kind

541
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 1: of muscle toning workout, and so the gym began to

542
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 1: offer female only hours on non peaked times. Oh sure,

543
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 1: non peaked times. Well, it has been an uproar, she says.

544
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 1: I thought it was funny and even laugh loudly when

545
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: you said the boys are more upset when they miss

546
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:53,040
Speaker 1: their workouts, Because it has been crazy. Guys have written

547
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 1: our campus newspaper started a Facebook group in protest, calling

548
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: this an act of reverse sexism. Now, mind you, they

549
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: still have ninety two hours a week to have access

550
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: to the room. I think they are being kind of silly,

551
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,839
Speaker 1: but each to their own I guess, I guess Jenna. Yeah,

552
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: asked Jenna to keep us informed to see whether or

553
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:18,760
Speaker 1: not the school caves to the Jinder Jim Gender pandemonia,

554
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: Jim Jim Boree pandemonium. I just people people running around

555
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: the gym with their hands in the air like, yeah,

556
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of a dance marathon now. So on that

557
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 1: note again, our email addresses mom Stuff at Discovery dot com.

558
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,840
Speaker 1: If you have a letter or Valentine to send our way,

559
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: or you can send us a Valentine up on the facebooks.

560
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,480
Speaker 1: We'd like that. Why don't you send us a Valentine

561
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:45,920
Speaker 1: by liking us? That would be the best Valentine's present

562
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,959
Speaker 1: you could possibly give to me and Caroline. We would

563
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,879
Speaker 1: love you for that. And you can also follow us

564
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Mom's Stuff podcast, and you can check

565
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 1: out the blog during the week. It is at how

566
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:04,880
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our

567
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:08,280
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how staff

568
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing

569
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The hou Stepp Works iPhone app has arrived.

570
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:23,000
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the

571
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,319
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you