Opinion | Why giving roses on Valentine’s Day — or any day — is really a bad idea (2024)

Here’s an unromantic question for Valentine’s Day: Can we live without roses? Yes, they are the most popular cut flower around the world, and that’s no wonder; the blooms are stunning. But the daily, nonstop, global race to get just-cut roses from greenhouses to your front door makes them punishing on the environment. Which means it’s time to think differently.

This fast-moving game of romantic commerce never stops. It’s also absurd: The race required to provide a mass-produced bit of nature — at any hour, in any place, for as little as $10 a dozen — contributes significantly to the destruction of nature itself.

Airliners filled with flowers zip around the globe every day. Chrysanthemums from Colombia dash to Japan; roses from Kenya end up in Britain; carnations from Ecuador jet to Russia. Nearly all imported cut flowers go through the same emissions-intensive journey — climate-controlled greenhouses, refrigerated trucks and a long, chilled flight. Fresh flowers are a $34 billion global industry with a massive carbon footprint.

Compared with other perishables we transport around the world, flowers are perhaps the most damaging to the climate. The reason? Nearly everything else moves by ship, which has 1 percent the carbon footprint of air freight. A 2020 analysis of products sold in British grocery stores, by climate expert Mike Berners-Lee, found that a bouquet of imported flowers has a more significant impact than an 8-ounce steak raised on deforested land in Brazil and consumed in London.

A graphic comparing the environmental impact of commonly imported items in British grocery stores.

For those who adore flowers, like my mom, this might come as a shock. She expressed concern when I told her about the supply chain. “I see the harm,” she said. “But … they’re so beautiful.”

I feel it, too. Flowers play both real and symbolic roles in our lives. They express emotion in a way few things can: sympathy, love, regret, reverence — or just a simple gesture of care.

We don’t need to give that up.

There’s plenty the industry can do to reduce its climate impact. Greenhouses should be warmed by renewable energy, which should get easier as countries diversify their energy sources. This is particularly important in the Netherlands, the world’s largest exporter of cut flowers. In that country, with its cloudy, northern climate, highly automated and energy-intensive greenhouses are the norm, the majority of which are powered by fossil fuels. Recently, the Dutch government and the horticulture sector agreed to reduce emissions from these greenhouses. It can’t be an idle commitment.

Most importantly, the sector needs to move away from air freight. Some companies are already experimenting with shipping flowers by sea, an option with substantially fewer emissions. By carefully controlling the atmosphere in the containers, it is possible for cut stems to remain dormant for weeks. Most Western governments have yet to require individual industries to reduce their reliance on air freight, but if lawmakers start issuing those orders, the cut-flower industry should be among the first to be regulated.

Consumers can help, too. Avoid roses, carnations and chrysanthemums, the three species that make up the vast majority of imported flowers. The environmental impact of a bouquet plummets when the flowers are grown locally and are in season.

Hardy and with a long vase life, the big three species are perfect for cheap mass production and quick delivery around the world. Their success as a globally produced export means American growers can’t compete. Instead, farmers in the United States primarily cultivate specialty flowers such as sunflowers, dahlias, zinnias and snapdragons. They are more delicate and don’t travel well over long distances.

So, buy those flowers with the less-common names. They are grown chiefly in California, but small farms also cultivate them across the country. It’s no guarantee, but it’s significantly less likely they arrived via air.

Another thing consumers can do is to look for the “Certified American Grown” label when buying flowers at the supermarket. This guarantees the blooms were cultivated in the United States. Or better yet? Avoid buying flowers at grocery chains altogether. Instead, request sustainable bouquets from a local florist. Another way to ensure blooms were grown nearby is to purchase them at a local farmers market.

Ultimately, the environmental harms from the flower industry stem from our desire for cheap and instant gratification — and the brutally efficient willingness of private industry to produce it. The well-being of people and the planet comes second, if at all.

Confronting this requires re-examining our priorities. Yes, a fresh bouquet means instant beauty; it is more sustainable to plant a few tulips or daylilies, or some phlox or daffodils, and they’ll come back every year. Buy favorite flowers only when they’re in season and get to know what is locally available at different times of the calendar. Loosen the compulsion for rock-bottom prices: Pay more for something grown closer. And give up cultural expectations: Romance doesn’t need to be limited to roses.

Because when our effort to bring the beauty of nature indoors is harmful to that beauty itself, it begs that we question the absurdity of our way of life.

Additional development by Yan Wu.