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"US growers join "Field to Vase" movement"

In 2015 floriculture sales made up a $31.3 billion dollar industry according to the Society of American Florists. 78% of those flowers came from Columbia, which became a competitive market thanks to the Columbian Free Trade Agreement, that gave the country duty-free access to the U.S. market. Low wages make imported flowers cheaper than U.S. produced. The average flower worker in Columbia makes $6 a day and can work up to 70 hour weeks without overtime.

This has spurred a trend in the U.S. towards locally grown fresh flowers called the Field to Vase Movement. Reporter Renee Wilde takes a look at two growers in Ohio who define this new movement.

Imported flowers now make up 80% of the total cut flower production in the united states. That change has led to over half of the U.S. fresh flower growers going out of business since 1992. The number of U.S. cut flower growers is now estimated at 280, with the vast majority of those located in California.

In the late 1980‘s when Chris Waymire’s dad decided to turn part of his farming operation in Yellow Springs, Ohio over to fresh flower production, he didn’t realize he was about to be on the cutting edge of a new movement in the floral industry called Field-to-Vase. It encourages consumers to buy locally grown and harvested flowers.

Find out more at WYSO
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