To Ecuador, With Love

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Suraya Falcon, a worker at Agroganadera, says about previous jobs: “I have worked hours that I wasn’t paid for. There were layoffs, and they sprayed pesticide when workers were around. I worked there for four years and finally said enough when I became pregnant. This is one of the best farms in the area.”

Karen Christensen, global produce coordinator for Whole Foods Market, lives in the real world, somewhere between total idealism and good business. Whole Foods rolled out a nationwide program to sell Fair Trade Certified flowers in March. Sam’s Club also now offers them on its website.

Christensen has been to some of the farms we visited in Ecuador and has seen some of fair trade’s successes. She knows that none of it matters much if shoppers won’t buy the flowers, but she has confidence that they are “exceptional.”

Whole Foods tested them in several regions of the country and “we can’t keep them on the shelf,” she says. “They totally sold out.”

But did consumers choose the Fair Trade Certified roses because they understood the ramifications and really wanted to help the people who put them on their table, or were they moved by the long stems and large heads, the beauty of the flowers?

“It’s a little hard to say,” Christensen says. The labeling on the rose sleeves clearly states that they are fair trade items and what that means.

“What I know to be true is that people respond to quality, and they are willing to pay the highest price for the best quality,” she says. “A segment of our market cares very, very much about the fair trade aspect. If we can provide a high-quality product and make the world a better place at the same time, that’s all you can ask for.”

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