If you’re planning to give flowers this Christmas, remember to check out what you are buying.A lot of exotic flowers are grown in greenhouses great distances away and exported around the world. Apart from the issue of transport, there can be high social and environmental costs. For example, in Columbia the flower industry uses enormous quantities of polluting pesticides and in Kenya, horticulture requires a lot of water which reduces local water resources. As an alternative, and since fair-trade/certified organically produced flowers are not available in Cyprus, buy potted flowers or plants from a local supplier who grows their own. Or buy a Green Cyprus favourite; potted herbs e.g. lavender, basil, mint, etc, which not only smell divine but have many other culinary and medicinal uses too!
