Worker advocates urged Costa Farms to sign onto the worker-developed Planting Justice program at a press conference Sept. 8, 2026, outside the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka. Credit: McKenna Schueler

The world’s largest houseplant grower is facing pressure from agricultural workers in Apopka and across Florida to adopt enforceable outdoor worker safeguards, including protections against extreme heat, pesticides, and other labor abuses such as wage theft and sexual harassment on the job.

It’s part of a new “Planting Justice” campaign formally launched by worker advocacy groups this past Valentine’s Day.

“About 80 percent of the plants that are being produced in the United States are being grown and cultivated here in the state of Florida, and it’s really places like Homestead, like Apopka, that are the epicenter of that national industry,” said Oscar Londono of the Miami-based advocacy group WeCount!, speaking to Orlando Weekly outside the Farmworker Association of Florida headquarters in Apopka Tuesday.

Costa Farms, a multibillion-dollar company based out of Homestead, is the largest grower of houseplants in the world. It sells plants to customers directly and through major retailers such as Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot, Target and Whole Foods.

“We’re calling on Costa Farms to be the first major grower to join this program — to set the example not just in Florida, but wherever they do business with nursery workers here in the country,” said Londono.

‘The human cost of houseplants’

Agricultural workers organized with the Farmworkers Association delivered a petition to Costa Farms’ office in Apopka Tuesday morning — one day after Labor Day — urging the company to sign onto their Planting Justice program. Workers first asked Costa Farms to voluntarily sign on several months ago, but so far, the industry giant has refused to answer their call.

Workers are asking the supply chain to consider what they call the “human cost of houseplants” as they profit from their labor.

“We are working people with families and children who depend on us,” said Yesica Ramirez, general coordinator for the Farmworker Association, speaking to press in Spanish Tuesday. “Our work in agriculture is often very invisible, but incredibly important.”

“Our work in agriculture is often very invisible, but incredibly important.”

Yesica Ramirez, general coordinator for the Farmworkers Association

A report released earlier this year by WeCount, coinciding with the launch of the Planting Justice campaign, shared that, out of more than 300 South Florida plant nursery workers surveyed in 2024, 86 percent reported experiencing accidents or injuries on the job. 

Nearly half — 40 percent — said they had never received any health and safety training from their employer, even though nursery workers are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of extreme heat from working outdoors. A majority of Florida’s farmworkers are women, immigrants and other workers of color, according to advocates.

“No one else has to ask for a water break in this state, which has been denied time and time again at the state Legislature, who has ensured that the people working in 100-degree temperature does not get the local protections from local governments because their companies, such as Costa, don’t automatically provide them,” said Ericka Gomez-Tejeda, an organizer with the Hope Community Center and leader in the local Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition.

In 2024, influential business groups like the Associated Industries of Florida and Florida Chamber of Commerce aggressively lobbied Florida’s Republican-controlled state Legislature to pass a law (HB 433) prohibiting local governments from requiring employers to protect their workers against dangers of extreme heat. 

There is no workplace safety requirement under federal law that is specific to extreme heat exposure either — even for those working outdoors.

“How can we ask the people who feed us to die for us?” asked Gomez-Tejeda, speaking outside the Farmworker Association. “We cannot. And today we are asking Costa Farms to take a leadership role and lead by example for our communities — for all communities — and for these workers who are so essential to our lives in Apopka, in Florida, and everywhere.”

Nearly 3,000 people so far have called or sent letters to Costa Farms urging them to partner with the Plant Justice program, according to Londono.

Costa Farms told Orlando Weekly in a statement that it already has a proven, industry-leading safety record, touting awards it’s received from the Orlando Sentinel (2025 Best Workplace Award), the South Florida Manufacturers Association (Manufacturer of the Year) and the insurance news site Property Casualty360 (2026 Work’s Comp Risk Management Award).

“While standardized programs like the Planting Justice and the Fair Food Program can be valuable for some growers, our size and scale have allowed us to build customized, comprehensive policies and procedures to meet our workforce’s specific needs,” a Costa Farms spokesperson told Orlando Weekly in a statement. “We’re continually improving our policies and practices to stay ahead of the needs of our team.”

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Origin story

Planting Justice is less “standardized” than Costa Farms claims it is. It’s a collaborative approach, modeled after the worker-driven social responsibility (WSR) framework first adapted for the Fair Food Program. 

Developed by and for workers directly affected, this framework relies on employers — in this case, growers and retailers — that are willing to commit to a code of conduct, applied throughout their supply chain, that includes enforceable health, safety and labor standards.

“A key part of this program is that unlike a lot of the programs of corporate responsibility that are symbolic, voluntary pledges by companies to do the right thing, there’s real, meaningful enforcement,” Londono told the Weekly.

The Planting Justice framework includes elements of worker-to-worker education — so the workers themselves can better understand their rights — as well as what Londono describes as “market-based enforcement.”

“For nurseries that do not follow the code of conduct, they lose out on business with major retailers and major growers. And so there’s both the cost of noncompliance, but also the incentive,” he explained. “We want to make sure that we’re incentivizing and rewarding responsible employers, and so it’s responsible employers who ultimately should be the ones doing business with these retailers and major growers.”

The U.S. houseplant industry alone is worth an estimated $50 billion, according to WeCount. Although agricultural workers in Florida face numerous obstacles to securing stronger labor protections — from business-friendly policies under state law to weaker protections for farmworkers under federal labor law — there’s precedent for worker victories in the industry.

In 2001, agricultural workers from South Florida organized the Fair Food program campaign to end labor abuses perpetuated by a supply chain of tomato growers and fast food giants like Wendy’s, Taco Bell and McDonald’s who buy their product. 

Through protests, rallies and marches, everyday workers managed to pressure major fast-food chains like McDonald’s into adopting a code of conduct to protect workers against labor abuses such as wage theft and sexual harassment.

At least 14 retailers, including Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market and Walmart, have committed to not buy produce from growers that break rules outlined in the code of conduct. Kroger and Publix, notably, have steadfastly refused to sign on since 2011.

The Fair Food Program, today, covers more than 25,000 workers in 23 states and three countries.

“Yesterday we celebrated Labor Day across the country,” said Londono Tuesday, surrounded by allies with the Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition, Central Florida Jobs With Justice and the Farmworker Association. “It’s a day when we honor the workers and labor activists throughout history whose struggles and sacrifices gave us the minimum wage, the eight-hour workday, health and safety laws, and many of the basic rights that millions of workers in this country now enjoy.”

“These rights were not gifted to workers by their employers or by politicians,” he pointed out. “They were hard-fought, and they were won with sacrifice, solidarity and collective action.”

According to Londono, that’s exactly the kind of tradition that Florida’s plant nursery workers today are organizing to continue. “As the world’s largest plant nursery and a national consumer brand, Costa Farms can choose to continue its silence and inaction, or they can do the right thing and take a leadership role in transforming the industry. They can work with us to set a new gold standard for all plant nurseries.”

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General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.