Costa Farms urged to adopt protections for plant nursery workers in the South

Alexandra Martinez

Sep 16, 2026

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Plant nursery workers, labor organizers, and community and faith leaders staged rallies and delivered petitions to Costa Farms offices in five Southeastern cities on Sept. 8, calling on one of the nation’s largest grower of ornamental plants to join a worker-driven program to improve labor conditions across the U.S. houseplant industry.

The day of action, organized by the national Planting Justice campaign, took place in Homestead and Apopka, Florida; Asheville, North Carolina; Trenton, South Carolina; and Rapidan, Virginia. Costa Farms has growing operations in each city, according to WeCount!, the Florida-based nonprofit behind the campaign.

Organizers said the actions were intended to bring the campaign’s demands directly to Costa Farms executives. Delegations delivered a poster listing the names of nearly 3,000 people who, according to WeCount!, sent letters to company executives over the summer urging the grower to participate in the Planting Justice program.

Justin Hancock, the director of research and development, brand marketing, and horticultural content at Costa Farms, told Prism that the company does not plan to join Planting Justice. 

“As we’ve grown over the last 65 years, we’ve been able to build programs and protections that reflect the specific needs of our workforce and operations,” Hancock wrote in an email. “We believe the protections and support our team members deserve are already in place at Costa Farms.”

These protections, according to Hancock, include a heat illness prevention plan that comprises heat monitoring, readily accessible drinking water, shaded and air-conditioned recovery areas, multilingual safety training, and additional rest breaks to Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health guidelines. 

Costa Farms also participates in independent third-party audits covering labor standards, Hancocks said. Those auditors, he said, have consistently found strong compliance with U.S. labor laws and workplace safety requirements and have not identified any major violations, with employee interviews also generating positive feedback.

He added that the company has invited WeCount! representatives to its farm. “After seeing our policies and practices, they’ve acknowledged we’re taking the appropriate steps and acting in the best interests of our workforce,” he said.

WeCount! disputes that characterization.

In a statement responding to Costa Farms, the organization said its representatives “categorically deny endorsing Costa Farms’ current practices as sufficient.”

“Let’s be clear: a management-led tour isn’t an audit, and internal policies on paper don’t mean anything without independent enforcement,” WeCount! said in a statement to Prism. “Back in 2024, we visited Costa Farm’ HQ after hearing complaints from current and former workers at Costa Farms about a gap between their policies on paper and how these policies are implemented in the fields.”

The organization said it believes Planting Justice differs from corporate responsibility programs that rely primarily on self-reporting or limited audits because the program would give nursery workers a role in enforcing labor standards.

If Costa Farms really cares about the best interests of their workforce, why not join a program that can credibly certify their claim to be a “top workplace” with independent oversight?

WeCount! statement

“How do Costa Farms’ executives know that their field workers feel truly free to speak up and report labor abuses without fear of suffering retaliation or losing the jobs they depend on to live?” WeCount! wrote. “If Costa Farms really cares about the best interests of their workforce, why not join a program that can credibly certify their claim to be a ‘top workplace’ with independent oversight? Without Planting Justice, we’re all just taking their word for it.”

In some cities during the day of action, faith leaders led prayer circles in or around company offices, asking Costa Farms to respond to workers’ concerns.

“Today was a historic day for our Planting Justice campaign,” Oscar Londoño, co-executive director of WeCount!, said in a press release. “Across the South, we organized rallies, hosted prayer circles, and led delegations to deliver a clear message to Costa Farms: The time to join Planting Justice is now.”

The campaign comes as extreme heat hits much of the South, exacerbating grueling working conditions for outdoor workers. Plant nursery employees routinely work outdoors planting, fertilizing, and pruning in the hot sun.

Alejandro Gonzalez, a nursery worker and member leader of WeCount! and the Planting Justice campaign, said workers face significant challenges while performing physically demanding work in extreme heat.

“I am a nursery worker. Every day, I work planting, fertilizing, and pruning plants in the extreme heat,” Gonzalez said in the press release. “It’s not an easy job, and the wages are very low.”

Planting Justice is modeled after the Fair Food Program, a worker-driven social responsibility initiative that has received international recognition. WeCount! says its program would establish a worker-driven code of conduct for participating growers, with year-round independent monitoring and audits intended to ensure compliance.

The organization is seeking commitments not only from growers but also from major retailers that sell houseplants. Its campaign calls on large retailers to sign legally binding agreements requiring them to purchase plants only from growers participating in the Planting Justice program.

Costa Farms has emerged as the campaign’s central target because of its size and national reach. Headquartered in South Florida, the company supplies plants to major retailers including Costco, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods. By joining the program, organizers argue, Costa Farms could become the first major grower to participate and establish a standard for other nursery employers.

“We invite them to stand on the right side of history and to partner with us to bring Planting Justice to the houseplant industry,” Londoño said.

The campaign is based in part on a report published by WeCount! titled “The Human Cost of Houseplants.” The report surveyed more than 300 plant nursery workers in South Miami-Dade about wages and working conditions.

According to the organization, 86% of respondents reported suffering work-related injuries or illnesses, including problems associated with heat stress, pesticide exposure, and ergonomic hazards.

The report also found that 32% of people surveyed said their employers did not provide drinking water. Among workers who did receive water, 62% said it was often too dirty or unsanitary to drink. Nearly 83% said they had worked in nurseries that did not provide shaded rest breaks, despite temperatures that routinely exceeded 90 to 100 degrees, according to the report.

Other reported concerns included wage theft, lack of paid leave, sexual harassment, and retaliation. Thirty-five percent of respondents said they had experienced wage theft, while 60% said they never received paid sick or vacation days during their time in the industry.

Among women workers surveyed, 55% reported experiencing sexual harassment, discrimination, or hostile work environments. Fifty-six percent said they had witnessed employers or supervisors retaliating against workers for speaking up or exercising their rights.

The campaign’s focus on nursery workers follows WeCount!’s previous effort to establish heat protections for outdoor workers in South Florida.

From 2021 through 2024, the organization led the Que Calor! campaign, which sought enforceable requirements for water, shade, and rest breaks for outdoor workers in agriculture and construction. WeCount! says the proposed Miami-Dade County heat standard advanced to a final vote but was ultimately blocked after Florida lawmakers passed HB 433 in 2024. The law, which took effect July 1, 2024, prohibits Florida local governments from adopting local heat protections for workers.

Supporters from labor, environmental, and faith organizations joined Tuesday’s actions. Speakers or organizers represented the National Farmworker Ministry, Sierra Club Florida, Southern Workers Assembly, Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Just Economics, and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, among other organizations.

“The South is changing because workers are organizing,” Lindsey Grovenstein, an organizer with the Southern Workers Assembly, said in the press release. “There are thousands of people working in nurseries, fields, and other agricultural jobs who are dealing with the same questions workers everywhere are dealing with.”

Florida produces more than 70% of the nation’s indoor foliage and tropical plants, making the state a major center of the U.S. houseplant industry. For organizers, Tuesday’s coordinated actions were designed to turn that economic importance into pressure for improved working conditions.

“We need a program like the Planting Justice program now,” said Yesica Ramirez, general coordinator at the Farmworker Association of Florida, in the press release. “Everyone who enjoys their garden plants should be able to have confidence that they were grown in places where workers are treated with dignity, respect, and with rights and benefits.”

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor