Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #623388 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Customer Reviews

Fence-sitting
While this is indeed an inside view of the cut flower industry it lacks the conviction of a "Fast Food Nation" in terms of the Author's POV.
Yes:you are taken behind the scenes at various stages of the flower game from breeding to farming to selling floor,however none of it is compelling enough to give the whole a sense of purpose. If in fact there are hazardous working conditions and child labor is put to use to grow roses in Latin America and Africa for the EU/UK/US markets-little is made of this. The overall feeling is that "A rose is a rose..." no matter that some worker has suffered nerve damage or reproductive problems or been denied an education to grow and ship it.
If you want a lot of scientific facts about floral reproduction and genetic make-up;this is the book for you. If you want to know how Big Business is making a profit off cut flowers this is the book for you. If you want to know what it takes to become an educated consumer of sustainable cut flowers you'll have to look hard and read a long time before you even get close to finding out. Most telling is the Author's own admission to being surprised to see white,blond,blue-eyed greenhouse employees in Holland instead of the latin-american/hispanic variety she was used to seeing in California. The best testimony for growing one's own.