 Hello everyone, Adam Navas here, and today we're having a real conversation between two native English speakers, myself and Liz Wade. Liz, how are you today? I'm okay. Yeah, you know, sun's shining. Yeah, sometimes you say I'm here and that's a win, you know, so Well, it's always nice whatever's going on in our lives that we can take a few minutes to talk to each other and invite our Spotlight family and friends to come and have a conversation. So today we're going to be talking about the program, The Big Business of Flowers. And if you haven't had a chance to check out that program, I would highly recommend that you do that before watching this. So go do that. You can follow along and listen on YouTube. You can go to our website www.spotlightenglish.com Or you can just listen along wherever you get your podcasts. So if you've already done that, stay right here. Keep watching. If you haven't, go do that and then come watch this because we're going to be talking about that program today. This program is all about the cut flower business. So flowers not that are in the ground and growing, but that have been cut and are used for decoration or to beautify. Liz, I don't think cut flowers have other purposes, do they? I don't think so. I mean, here in the States, it's very common to give them for say Valentine's Day or things like that. You know, like an anniversary or like a nice thing or to decorate for a wedding. Or if something bad happens, you often send them for a funeral. But I don't think there's, I think really that's the only purpose for cut flowers. Just beauty. Yeah. So the interesting thing, one of the interesting things about this program is it talks about the business of cut flowers. So you can understand, I think cut flowers and beautiful flowers are fairly easy to understand, even if you might have different flowers where you live versus where we live. But the business of flowers, that's something that I had never really thought about, taking cut flowers from one location and how do you get them to around the world really, right? Yeah. Because of course, where we live in Michigan, there's winter, what, seven, eight months of the year. Too much. The growing season for flowers outside here is very short. Yeah. So if we want flowers in the winter, we're going to have to figure out how to get them here. Right. And traditionally, transporting flowers was not something many people, many countries were able to do. But now that we have such a vast global network of flowers, you can grow various kinds of flowers in places that weren't traditionally known for flowers. So one of the easiest examples that we know of is the Netherlands was known for vast amounts of flowers, but especially tulips, right? Yes. Yes. The Netherlands is definitely, Holland is known for tulips. I feel like it must be their national flower or something like that. Yeah. But they are the largest exporter of cut flowers in the world still. Really? That's what the program says. Oh. I missed that. Yes. So it says... I would believe it though. I mean, wouldn't you want some tulips directly from Holland? Yeah. I have actually visited the Netherlands in the past few years and we were there in February. So there weren't actually tulip fields or anything like that, but there were still fresh tulips at like flower markets and other markets. And also, I mean, I've seen pictures of just fields and fields and fields and fields of tulips. Yeah. It really is quite amazing the flower markets there. I've seen little videos of how efficiently they're able to cut the flowers, package them and ship them. But of course, it raises the issue now, this program raises the issue of there are certain countries around the world that are saying, oh, we actually have a great climate in which to grow flowers and we can start to grow these flowers and ship them around the world. And there is some, that of course is fine, but there are some issues with that, right? Who owns the flowers? And these are issues of production and fairness and labor because you can make, you can grow flowers and labor costs might be cheaper in a developing country or there might not be standards of protection for workers. So it raises an interesting question in my brain about how do you invest in a place that needs jobs and money, but also do it in a way that doesn't take advantage of workers. Right. And that's where the fair trade idea comes in. Yes. So let's talk about fair trade. So when we say fair trade, what do we mean by fair trade? Well, okay, so I will be honest. I am not an economic expert. My understanding of fair trade. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I have to reorient my life now. I know. This is a huge surprise to you, but no, but really basically it's paying workers a fair price and giving them a good work environment. So not sending people into work in places where they're going to inhale toxic fumes or work with chemicals that aren't safe or things like that. And then on top of that are going to be paid fairly for their work. So not unfair wages, but something that is going to make them able to live their life and have a good life. Right. And that's an issue actually that in a country like the United States we're actually struggling with as well, because there are people who own big companies who have vast amounts of profit and extra money, whereas people here are like struggling to get by, right? There are things in all kinds of countries. And that's where the idea of we don't have the time or the expertise to talk about capitalism and profit and some of the motivating factors of that, but also the problems with that. Yeah, this conversation is getting deep. Well, this is one of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately is how people like simplicity, right? They want to know what's good and what's bad. And I think one of the things that we at Spotlight Strive to do is inject a little complexity and say, this is a program about cut flowers, the business of cut flowers, but it's more complex than that. There's the cost of transporting the flowers. There's the cost of labor. And we don't want to offer just a simple solution. We want to say, you know what, the world is a complex place and there are a lot of things involved in these decisions. And it's not always easy to get answers to those decisions, right? Like if you want to ask, did this flower or this bouquet, which is a group of flowers, did this bouquet come from people who were treated fairly? Or is this from a company that did not use those measures or something like that? Well, and there's companies who kind of make sure they have a big stamp or a sticker that says, oh, we're good because they know that's what people want. But there are ways of not really doing that in your heart. Not exactly following those rules. Not exactly following those rules. So I think I am not a flower person and I'm probably not going to worry too much about where I get my flowers because I don't buy a lot of flowers. But there are things I think in my life I will probably think about maybe more often, especially now when we're recording this, the global supply chain is still affected by COVID. And it will probably for foreseeable few years continue. And there are things that we were used to being able to get relatively cheaply whenever we wanted. And now we have to think, hey, how did this get here? Should I be buying it? When should I be buying it in season or out of season? I don't know if you've had any experiences like that when you're shopping. Yeah, I don't really get flowers to bring that back to flowers. I kind of get what's there. I try to shop local as much as I can for our food and vegetables and things like that. I mean, obviously the global supply chain is impacting everyone, I feel like. But to bring it back to flowers, okay, so here's like a not super serious question, Adam. Feel free to take it less serious than I've been. I know. We just need a little levity, a little lightening up. But do you buy flowers for your wife? On occasion, yes. On occasion I do. Yeah, good for you. See, I will say one of the things about me is that I do not like cut flowers. Really? I mean, they're beautiful. But I would prefer if my husband is going to buy me flowers, I would prefer a plant. Huh, okay, go ahead. Because I feel like cut flowers, they are beautiful, but then they die. Okay. And then it's hard to get rid of them. Why? I don't know, they just kind of like get yucky in the vase. That's exactly the beauty of cut flowers. They get so yucky that you're like, I have to get rid of these. I would much rather have like a plant that flowers. I'll tell you, I have a Christmas cactus that I, and I am very, very bad with plants. I try really hard, but I have a Christmas cactus that bloomed right as COVID was shutting down the United States. Yeah. It's such a bright spot actually for me to walk into my kitchen and see one beautiful, big pink flower on this plant. Yeah. So, and I will say sometimes I do buy cut flowers. I do enjoy them. Well, I think this is a great question to ask our audience. Potted plants versus cut flowers. So I'm going to represent cut flowers because there are certain things like roses and tulips and certain flowers that you can't grow in a pot. You can't have a rose plant in your kitchen. No, it grows. I'll bet that some person somewhere is like, I have a rose plant right in my kitchen and it's beautiful, but that's not everyone's case. Well, so tell us if you like cut flowers or potted plants, but don't just write it. I would love to see a picture of your, if you have a favorite potted plant or cut flowers, or even if you have a flower market near you, you've got to admit you would love walking through a flower market. Yes. Flowers do smell beautiful. I mean, the smell, I do love walking through like where flowers are and smelling them. There's nothing like that. Yeah. It's so light and wonderful. All right. Well, post a picture in the comments below or let us know if you like a certain kind of flower or if you're like Liz, it adds a burden of you have to decide when you throw them out. I would also be curious to know if you do get flowers, where do you get them? Like, are you influenced by if a company or you know, this is like, this is like where you get your flowers? Do you know that they are fair trade flowers? Do you care about that? Do you get them locally? Like, does that go into your thought process at all? Yeah. And you can do that in the comments on YouTube. You can do it on our website or you can do it on social media. We're on Facebook or Twitter. Basically, wherever you want to post that picture or tag us or however. Because I think I would love a moment of everybody just sharing a nice picture of flowers. It seems like a small thing, but like Liz was saying with her Christmas cactus, it's a great way to just brighten everybody's mood, even in a digital, even in a picture. Yeah. And one more thing we're going to ask you to like and subscribe. If you're not already, if you're on YouTube and you're watching this video, it really helps us out. Check out the join, what we're offering there. Super excited there. And make sure to join us next time for our real conversation. And until then, we hope you listen, watch, practice and learn Spotlight Out.