Anthropologist Margret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

In 2012 a small group of domestic farmers and industry stakeholders gathered in Tacoma, WA, and developed a vision of working together to help raise the profile of local American-grown flowers. In 2014 a task force of farmers from across our country took that vision a step further, developing and launching the Certified American Grown Flowers program. Today the Certified American Grown program represents 45 farms from 13 different states and is now certifying millions of stems of flowers and greens.

Thanks to the support of retailers, an attractive brand and a committed group of flower farmers, consumers across the country are being provided the transparency, the guarantee and the ability to choose more local American Grown Flowers.

Not only does the Certified American Grown program provide consumers with the transparency they are looking for as to the origin of the flowers they are bringing home, it provides retailers with an American Grown guarantee that consumer advocacy groups and the FTC are requiring for origin-based claims. The Certified American Grown program’s third-party certification company, Certified Inc., provides the equivalent of a supply chain audit for retailers to confidently market claims of locally grown flowers.

In 2016, the American Grown campaign is poised for exponential growth thanks to a few key initiatives:

Following a very successful inaugural year in 2015, the American Grown Field-to-Vase Dinner Tour will once again criss-cross the country inviting designers, consumers and the media to a series of pop-up dinners on beautiful American flower farms. Featured in the Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Sunset Magazine and the New York Times, these farm-to-fork style meals create a wonderful opportunity to connect the already understood appreciation for the locally grown food movement to the same values and virtues found in buying and supporting American Grown Flowers. Approximately 1,200 people attended the 2015 tour and many of the dinners sold out quickly. Dates and locations for the 2016 tour are expected to be announced some time in January.

Additionally in January, the California Cut Flower Commission is expected to launch BloomCheck. BloomCheck is a sustainability certification that was developed by the commission’s Grower Research & Economic Development Committee after securing a specialty crop block grant in 2013. The project was funded to develop a domestically focused sustainability program that differentiates from current international certifications and better recognizes California’s farms for the rigor, standards and strict oversight that are involved with growing flowers domestically. Protected Harvest, an auditing firm based in California, will be responsible for the third-party auditing process for BloomCheck certifications. Designed to be the gold standard for sustainability, BloomCheck will help highlight why origin matters when it comes to sustainability claims.

After years of experience and success with the CA Grown brand, our farms are successfully helping retailers highlight and protect the value of origin-based claims with programs like Certified American Grown and BloomCheck. In 2016 consumers will increasingly seek more transparency, more guarantees and more local when it comes to the food they eat — and the flowers they buy.

Fortunately, the Certified American Grown campaign and the BloomCheck program will help ensure that they get exactly what they are looking for.

Kasey Cronquist is the executive director of the California Cut Flower Commission in Santa Barbara, CA. He can be contacted at [email protected].