Buying flowers is a tricky business. I love flowers, but most often I cut my own because you never know where those flowers came from. Seriously.

In the Los Angeles Times Business Section, there’s a great story, Progress Blooms on Kenyan Soil, on Kenyan workers’ rights in the flower industry.

Summary: They had none, now they have slightly more.

Did you know that an average worker in a Kenyan greenhouse processes more than 2700 flowers a day earning $70 a month? That’s about minimum wage in Kenya.

Complaints from the workers range sexual harrassment to heavy exposure to pesticides (the type which are illegal in the U.S.), which can cause miscarriages and birth defects.

For a pretty product, it’s a very dirty business.