Roses from China? ...Mmmm very sustainable?

Read more here, or watch an audio slideshow here. Some higlights below:

• Workers earning as little as $25 a month clip roses from huge greenhouses, take them to vast sheds to remove any thorns by hand.
• The first sustained exports to the Unites States start later this week... others will be sold at auction in the Netherlands... Almost overnight, growers in this poor, rural province have become big suppliers to markets from Singapore to Moscow.
• The government has dedicated a huge effort to making all this possible. Extending its top-notch infrastructure inland, it is building 12-lane roads, sturdy bridges and international airports.
• The cost of air shipping works out to about 30 cents per long-stemmed rose, a little less without thorns and leaves... These roses cost as little as half the price of roses in other developing countries, excluding air freight.