USDA

• Feb. 14 is Valentine’s Day – an occasion that traditionally combines romance with big business.
• One of the biggest businesses is selling roses, which Americans increasingly love.
• The National Retail Federation estimates people will spend US$2.6 billion on Valentine’s Day flowers, but that includes everything from azaleas to zinnias.
• The Society of American Florists says that 250 million roses are produced for the holiday, but it doesn’t estimate spending.

Where are those roses coming from?

• To learn more, I turned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which for decades has tracked the number of domestic farms and nurseries selling cut roses.
• Back in 1970, there were almost 800 U.S. commercial farms and nurseries growing cut roses.
• The USDA’s latest Census of Horticultural Specialties found about 110 farms and nurseries growing cut roses.
• In 2023, the U.S. imported about 2.8 billion cut roses.
• Instead, cut roses sold in the U.S. primarily come from two places: Colombia and Ecuador.

Why Colombia and Ecuador?

• The shift from U.S.-grown roses to South American ones happened a few decades ago, when the U.S. and Colombian governments were looking for new ways to stem the flow of cocaine into the U.S. One part of the strategy was to convince farmers in Colombia to stop growing coca leaves – a traditional Andean plant that provides the raw ingredient for making cocaine – by giving them preferential access to U.S. markets if they grew something else.
• So, in the early 1990s, Colombia and Ecuador signed the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act.
• Signing gave these coca-producing countries duty-free access to U.S. markets in exchange for clamping down on growing illegal drugs.
• Whether the act stopped drug production is unclear, but many businesses in Colombia and Ecuador started growing and shipping flowers north.

Prices for roses

• The vast quantity of roses coming up from Colombia and Ecuador has kept rose prices in check.
• In a typical year, supermarket prices for a dozen roses double around Valentine’s Day.
• While the USDA doesn’t track flower shop prices, visiting my local florist shows the cost of premium long-stem roses in vases is higher.

Why the price increase?

• The U.S. government tracks monthly the import price of single roses.
• In 2023, before Valentine’s Day, the average cut rose stem cost 40 cents coming off the cargo plane.
• This means in August, roses cost wholesalers $3 a dozen, while a dozen Valentine’s Day roses cost $5 after clearing customs.
• Given the average price in supermarkets over the whole year for a dozen roses was a bit over $12, this means people in the U.S. are spending more than $3 billion annually.

Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• WOBURN, Mass., Feb. 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN) (“Yield10” or the “Company”), an agricultural bioscience company, today provided an update on its Omega-3 Camelina program.
• “In 2023, we achieved significant milestones in our omega-3 Camelina program scaling up EPA8 Camelina seed production and executing against our regulatory plan.
• The Company is also transferring the EPA trait into proprietary Yield10 herbicide tolerant Camelina germplasm to boost in-field agronomics and yield.
• In 2020, Yield10 signed an exclusive collaboration agreement with Rothamsted to support Rothamsted’s Flagship Program to develop omega-3 oils in Camelina.

• DENVER, Feb. 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A sharp decline in the number of dairy heifers available to replace older cows exiting the U.S. dairy herd could limit any meaningful growth in domestic milk production over the next few years.
• While the global demand outlook for U.S. dairy products remains murky due to export market uncertainties, any potential growth opportunities may be stymied by an inability to expand U.S. milk production.
• That imbalance has prompted dairy farmers to reduce their heifer replacement inventories, in large part by breeding more dairy heifers and cows to beef bulls.
• Geiger said the shrinking replacement pipeline will impact the ability to grow U.S. milk production for some time.

• WASHINGTON, Feb. 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Breakthrough Institute endorses the Improving Coordination of Agriculture Research and Data Act , introduced this week by Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA), along with Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX).
• This legislation includes proposals for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a new scientific advisory committee focused on agriculture climate research; create a “Rural Climate Alliance Network'' to strategically align agricultural climate research, data systems, and technology transfer; and direct USDA to issue a report to Congress that identifies the research, data systems, and technical assistance needs of farmers, ranchers, foresters and rural communities.
• These efforts will ensure the federal agriculture climate research agenda is driven by science and coordinated with producers to address both immediate and long-term climate challenges.
• As the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices continue to expand, it is now more important than ever that USDA programs and agencies actively coordinate their climate research, data collection, and monitoring efforts.