Global Policy Forum

by Ross Wehner

The equatorial sun beats down on the clear plastic roof of a greenhouse in the Cayambe Valley of Ecuador. Despite the suffocating heat, the workers inside move at a frantic pace. In two weeks it will be Valentine's Day, and every rose in sight will be for sale in the United States. Women stand at tables, hands flying as they sort roses by the length and size of the head, arranging them in bunches of 25. Teenagers, mostly boys, run from table to table, carrying the roses to the next room. The flowers have already been treated with chemicals to kill insects and mildew; now they are dunked in preservatives to keep them from rotting during their journey through U.S. Customs. After being wrapped in cellophane and boxed, the flowers are chilled and flown overnight to Miami. By the time they reach florists and supermarkets across the country, a rose that cost less than 17 cents to produce in Ecuador will sell for as much as $8.

Erwin Pazmiño, the chief executive of Rosas del Ecuador, surveys the scene with satisfaction. Thanks to volcanic soils, ample snowmelt from the Andes, and 12 hours a day of sunshine year-round, rose stems in the Cayambe Valley grow to a gargantuan three feet, topped by brilliantly colored flowers the size of tennis balls. Since the ideal growing conditions were discovered by international investors in the 1980s, rose exports from Ecuador have skyrocketed, transforming the country's rose industry into the world's fourth largest. Today, two-thirds of Ecuador's roses -- some 500 million blooms a year -- end up in the United States.

Pazmiño, a former bank executive dressed in pin-striped shirt and loafers, glad-hands the workers as he moves among the rows of flowers. Jobs in the rose industry pay roughly $140 a month -- significantly above the country's minimum wage -- and Pazmiño boasts of his company's safety record. "We provide masks and gloves to all the workers," he says. "Since I've been here, we've never had a single problem with chemicals."

But international agencies and workers in the valley paint a markedly different picture of the industry: Insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and soil fumigants used in the greenhouses are causing serious health problems for Ecuador's 60,000 rose workers -- especially the women and children who sort and package the flowers prior to shipping. In recent years, studies by the International Labor Organization and Ecuador's Catholic University have found that as many as 60 percent of postharvest workers complain of pesticide-poisoning symptoms, including headaches, blurred vision, and muscular twitching. Women in the industry, who represent 70 percent of all rose workers, experience significantly elevated rates of miscarriages. Children under 18, who make up more than a fifth of the workforce, display signs of neurological damage at 22 percent above average. Children under 18, who make up more than a fifth of the workforce, display signs of neurological damage at 22 percent above average. Children under 18, who make up more than a fifth of the workforce, display signs of neurological damage at 22 percent above average.

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