Love, Roses and Haiti
I don’t pretend to know anything about what Haiti needs or what ought to happen next. But I do know that many countries — including our own — got their start toward a stable economy by figuring out something that they could export to nations that had more money than they did. Surely the same will be true of Haiti.
Since the earthquake, the floriculture industry has been abuzz about Double Harvest, a Haitian greenhouse operation founded by the Van Wingerden Greenhouse Company in North Carolina. The Van Wingerden family established it in 1981 as a charitable endeavor that would combine greenhouse jobs with medical services and housing, creating some sort of stable life for as many people as the 200-acre operation could support.
While they do grow flowers and ornamental plants, they also produce quite a lot of food, which then feeds the workers and goes out to vendors who sell it in local markets. And they grow trees for much-needed reforestation. A product called “Haiti Mix,” made from sugarcane waste and rice hulls, is made on-site for potting soil mixes. Because they have clean water, good roads and a generator, Double Harvest was able to step in immediately and help relief efforts after the earthquake.
A project like Double Harvest can only do so much. But if a little sustainable agriculture were to take off in Haiti, and if exporting a luxury crop like a flower helped finance the operation, I wouldn’t object to seeing Haitian roses for sale at Valentine’s Day. Would you?
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