There is a quote that has been on my mind since starting this project, which I feel sums up the spirit of Rooftop Roses.
Nick Cave, the godfather of goth and unquestionably, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time, answers random questions from fans in an agony aunt/uncle-format via his website, The Red Hand Files.
In answer to two recent questions submitted - “how do you know who you are” and “what are we doing here”, part of his response included the following -
I feel duty-bound to unearth, enhance and promote the world’s beautiful things rather than obsess, worry and agitate over the worst of things.
At The Beautiful Bunch, we support people to rebuild their lives when the very worst of things happen. Many of the young women from refugee backgrounds who join our team have lost their homes, those dearest to them - they have survived the unthinkable.
The work we do is a constant reminder that sometimes the most awful thing you imagine might happen, does. And yet, The Beautiful Bunch exists because we feel that the only antidote to having to confront and worry about the worst, may be a devotion to the best. We choose to dedicate our time to enhancing and promoting the world’s most beautiful things and the joy and happiness they bring.
Whilst there is no absence of worry and agitation over the undeniable worst, we, like Nick, feel duty-bound to also celebrate the most beautiful. We do this with a reverence for the beauty of the botanical world, the joy our flowers bring to people, the community we have built, the women we support and the hope they dare to maintain.
However, if we look beyond our floral studio, and at floriculture as a whole, the cut flower industry, the very thing that enables us to share this beauty, is, at its core, harmful to that which it ought to protect.
In Australia we have been importing cut flowers for almost 50 years. Currently, over half the fresh-cut flowers sold here have been imported. The global cut flower trade is rapid and intensely periodic, something that exacerbates the industry’s environmental harm.
The production value of cut flowers in Australia is estimated at over 300 million dollars a year. There is an ever-increasing decline in domestic cut flower production, despite a growing local demand, and accordingly, this has seen a steady, continual reliance upon imported flowers.
As the majority of flowers sold here have been flown across the world before arriving, the industry generates significant carbon emissions. Cut flowers are transported in refrigerated planes. The main countries we import from are Kenya, Malaysia, Colombia, South Africa, China, and Ecuador. In addition to the carbon cost of getting the product here, are the emissions created from the industrial-scale greenhouses they are grown in.
There is also the question of workers’ rights. A recent investigative documentary from the ABC, The Real Cost Of A Rose, revealed the widespread worker exploitation in the industry. The documentary focused on Kenya, where women make up 70 percent of the floriculture workforce. It detailed allegations of sexual harassment, harmful exposure to chemicals, and labour exploitation across the industry.
Exposure to chemicals is not just an issue concerning worker welfare, if you are an Australian consumer buying cut flowers from a supermarket, chances are, as little as two days prior, they have been doused in chemicals, specifically, fumigated with methyl bromide and then dipped in glyphosate.
To understand how we got to the point where a rose represents so little of the natural world, we need to go back to 2017, when the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources conducted a review of import conditions for fresh cut flowers and foliage.
They did this after an analysis of inspection records showed alarmingly high rates of pests in large quantities of imported fresh cut flowers and foliage at the Australian border.
During the review, the government discovered that less than half of all imported flowers complied with environmental protections. In an effort to change this, mandatory offshore measures were brought in. These measures came in to effect 1 March, 2018, and have since required all propagable cut flowers (special mention to carnations, chrysanthemums, and roses), to be devitalised prior to being exported from the country of origin. To devitalise is “to deprive of life or vitality” – so the process of ensuring these flowers are free from pests, leaves them in effect, dead on arrival.
I can’t help but wonder as to how the rose, loved by humans longer than any other flower in existence, which has achieved unrivalled admiration in cultural mythology across the globe, and was once so valued that it was considered a source of legal tender – is now arriving to us, effectively dead on our doorstep.
Imported roses from industrialised rose farms, instead of signifying love and beauty, are a sign of a broken system. We should never celebrate the magnificence of a rose with a carbon footprint causing irreparable harm to the planet on which its grown.
In an attempt to boost the local flower economy and provide consumers with greater transparency around imported blooms, Flower Industry Australia and others have long been campaigning for existing Country of Origin labelling to include cut flowers. Cut flowers and foliage are currently the only perishable product in Australia that does not require this label.
In 2021, a Deloitte Access Economics report, commissioned by the Australian Government, recommended against a proposal to extend Country of Origin labelling to cut flowers. They claimed it would be “complex and costly” considering the global supply chain. The report did also note that the chemical residue from imported flowers to fresh foods and vegetables in supermarkets was a matter for the Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment to consider.
Our response to the current situation is to grow Australia’s most beautiful roses. Their cultivation, harvest, and sale will provide paid training and employment for young women marginalised from the mainstream workforce. They will be grown only kilometres away from the doorsteps they are delivered to, and they will have environmental credentials which are unrivalled in the Australian commercial cut flower industry.
In the face of a planet warming, ensuing climate crisis, and unprecedented numbers of forcibly displaced people, it has perhaps never felt harder to “enhance and promote the world’s beautiful things”. There is, after all, an overwhelming number of problems to obsess and worry over.
In our search for solutions to the problems we face, we are turning to one of the oldest flowers in cultivation. From our first harvest, we will ensure that these are flowers you can touch, smell, and fall in love with. We hope that they may even help you to confront the worst this world brings us, with wonder and reference for the most beautiful, the very best.
Jane x
