NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 12, 2018

Q: The majority of roses Americans give one another on Valentine’s Day, roughly 200 million in all, are grown in Colombia. Where is Colombia?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The roses are grown in thousands of acres of white-tarped greenhouses under 12 hours of natural sunlight at an 8,400-foot altitude outside Colombia’s capital city . . .

A. Bogota

B. Caracas

C. Lima

D. Quito


A. Bogota is located in the center of Colombia, on a high plateau known as the Bogota Savanna in the Andes mountain range. The good growing conditions and an abundance of cheap labor have helped Colombia sell 4 billion flowers to the United States last year.


Q: The explosion of rose production in Colombia has put most U.S. rose growers out of business. Which state is the top producer of cut flowers?

A. Alabama

B. Arizona

C. California

D. Florida


C. California is still America's top cut flower producer, and Florida (Spanish for "land of flowers") is second. In the past 27 years, the American flower industry’s production of roses dropped roughly 95 percent, falling from 545 million to less than 30 million.


Q: Colombia’s flower industry bloomed thanks to a U.S. effort to disrupt what export from that nation?

A. Cannabis

B. Cocaine

C. Heroin

D. Methamphetamines


B. President George H.W. Bush and other officials sought incentives that would push Colombians away from cocaine production and toward legitimate endeavors. So in 1991, Congress passed a trade law that eliminated the import duty on Colombian cut flowers. But, Colombia still is the world’s top cocaine producer.


Q: The United States buys nearly all of Colombia’s roses, and it is the world’s biggest consumer of cocaine. Which neighbor of Colombia has become the second-largest cocaine consumer?

A. Brazil

B. Ecuador

C. Peru

D. Venezuela


A. According to the UN, the United States consumes about 36 percent of the world’s cocaine and Brazil uses about 18 percent. Brazil’s growing economy and middle class have provided a nearby market for coca farmers in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia who produce almost all of the world's cocaine.