I was at a meeting a month or so ago where the topic being discussed was "EcoTrends: Fad Or Future?" I was impressed to see more than 100 people in the audience (the free lunch may have helped), all of whom were interested in seeing if this was a fad or a trend. I listened, didn’t really say much and learned … boy, did I learn.

First of all, this is not a fad. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that people in 46 countries thought environmental degradation was the number one global threat, even outranking concerns about nuclear weapons, ethnic hatred and AIDS (USA Today, 6/28/07). Hello horticulture … it is a concern here as well!

The movement to organic foods and herbs has not yet rocked the floriculture industry, but organic certification is the norm for a number of herb growers in this country. Being certified is a big undertaking, with the need for separate growing facilities, containers, transportation mechanisms and an entirely different concept of handling product. Standards are set by the National Organic Program (NOP) of the USDA, and to be labeled 100 percent organic, these standards must be met. However, if the market allows for the additional expense (see Trader Joe’s, Earth Fare and other organic franchises), then somebody will fill it. In the audience, Joe Messer spoke for the people at The Plug Connection in California, who have become organically certified and are proud to be so. However, the consensus was it was difficult to be labeled as such and was certainly not feasible for everyone. But perhaps the most incisive question arose when one of the audience participants succinctly asked, "Who cares?" when it comes to non-edible produce like flowers. Mark up one for reality.

According to Roland Boot, who works with a large Atlanta retail chain, "It is really difficult to get the concept of organic flowers to the retail market." More than a few heads nodded in agreement. Being certified organic is all well and good, but according to my interpretation of what I heard, it should not be our goal. Our goal should be to clean up our own act and do everything we can to be a greener industry. One person also struck a chord when he said, "We are the least green in the green industry!" Touché.

It was stated that maybe we simply have to market ourselves better and let people know we are believers. After all, if you can market a Hummer, we should be able to at least convince people that plastic pots are not all that bad. Marketing is good, I will be the spokesman for a cleaner industry, but we have precious little to market. We are still dumping millions of tons of plastic, we are still spraying without conscience and we still have our heads in the sand about the depth of environmental concern in this country.

The meeting brought out the good and sensible. The consensus was that we must be realistic; we cannot all relabel, rebuild and re-anything to become 100 percent organic. But we can become more sustainable (that is a good word, isn’t it?) and we can at least strive to reduce plastic, chemicals and trucks that state "Joe’s Flowers, Making America More Beautiful" while spewing pollution like a dump truck. It is not an all or nothing proposal; we will never be without plastics, bugs or trucks; let’s simply realize people expect more from us.

Will people pay more money for our product because you have made strides to become more sustainable? It is hard to say, but there is no doubt that mass markets see the trend and are jumping on it, the media will keep putting sustainability in front of us till the icebergs melt, and putting our heads in the sand will only block our vision.

Can we say "Let’s do the right thing" without an immediate payback? Obviously, that is up to the individual, but the audience agreed that sustainability is not a difficult goal to strive for. If we all do a little, we can green this industry up significantly.

Then we tell the world. The heck with telling them to grow another red petunia. Let’s shout why the American floriculture industry is truly a green thing, and we won’t have to worry about how many red petunias will be sold. Pie in the sky? Not according to all those people eating lunch.