Urban Agriculture

Burpee CEO Reblooms Urban Agriculture

At the keynote speech of the Urban Agriculture Conference in New York City, organized by The Horticultural Society of New York, George Ball, Burpee Chairman and CEO told leading-edge urban gardeners and rooftop farmers to “stop and smell the cut flowers”.
Most urban agriculture projects consist mainly of vegetables and herbs with occasionally a few flowers on the side. Ball, a 35 year veteran of both the cut flower as well as the vegetable business, urged the participants at the May 16th conference held at the Kimmel Center of New York University, to meet the great potential, as well as pent-up demand, of fresh cut flowers that have almost vanished from urban homes, parties and other public and private events.
“Think of cut flowers as an endangered species” quipped Ball. “If you grow flowers in a 1-2 acre farm or garden, you not only serve customers who have not been pleased for over 30 years, but also you avoid regional competitors and government regulators in the fresh vegetable business.”
Ball went on to discuss the attractiveness of a cut flower urban farm to employees as well as customers. “You will have volunteers line up early every morning to work on a seasonal, outdoor cut-flower farm—vegetables don’t have that kind of deep and universal attractiveness.”
Ball added that the contemporary flower industry is dominated by huge exporters from countries 4,000-6,000 miles away, whose flowers are picked “green” when the buds are not fully pigmented (much as a tomato is picked green) and shipped by air-polluting jumbo-jets to wholesalers who keep them up to a week in storage. Finally, they are distributed to an ever-decreasing number of retail florists. “Today most florists are gift shops with a small cooler in the back filled with pale-colored flowers from Asia, South America or the Middle East” Ball said. “The consumers have fewer choices in flowers than they have in vegetables in a supermarket.”
Ball also pointed out the latest research at Rutgers University by Jeannette Haviland-Jones that proves that fresh flowers in the home elevates mild depression or other mood disorders. “So long as the flowers are proportionate to the room—not too many, not too few—they transform the space into a place of happiness”, added Ball.
“Vegetables are fuel for our body, but flowers connect with the deepest parts of our spirit.”
The Urban Agriculture Conference at the Kimmel Center was attended by over 300 urban gardeners and city farmers from across the nation.

The above is a copy of a press release that went out last week. Your comments are welcome! And please pass along to other bloggers if you have a chance. Thank you.