Behind Roses’ Beauty, Poor and Ill Workers

In only five years Ecuadorean roses have become one of the most popular Valentine’s Day flowers on the international market. Born out of the anti-drug war in the US, which encouraged Central American farmers to convert to flowers rather than cocoa, Ecuador's flower industry now boasts 50,000 thousand jobs and salaries above minimum wage; the success has transformed a once impoverished region into the next candidate in Ecuador for an international airport. 70% of those employed in Ecuador’s flower farms are women, and their relatively high incomes have begun a social revolution in the Ecuadorean household. But all these great advantages have come at the expense of workers' health and the environment. No checks on pesticide and fumigant use translates into constant headaches and nausea for many laborers.. One local mayor exclaims: "It's hard for me to get the wealth out of the plantations and into the community. The farms operate in the first world, selling flowers on the Internet. I am still struggling to pave streets." – YaleGlobal