MEXICO CITY - Ten-year-old Adriana Salgado spends her days in a field in northwestern Mexico, picking the spinach, cabbage and other vegetables that fill American salad bowls. Adriana doesn't know how to read. She attends school for only one hour a day.

Her 15-year-old sister, who works with her, can't read, either. Adriana had an 8-year-old brother, too, until he was crushed to death by a tractor while working in a tomato field last year.

Natural and biodegradable, flowers were a "green" product before that concept even existed. But the growth of cut flowers in recent years into a $40 billion industry has relied heavily on chemical pesticides and fertili-zers, as well as far-flung global production.Now the green-living movement has finally reached the vase on your dining-room table. Eco-friendly and socially-responsible flowers are becoming more available, stimulated by blossoming consumer demand.

I remember one particularly bad factory in China. It produced outdoor tables, parasols, and gazebos, and the place was a mess. Work floors were so crowded with production materials that I could barely make my way from one end to the other. In one area, where metals were being chemically treated, workers squatted at the edge of steaming pools as if contemplating a sudden, final swim. The dormitories were filthy: the hallways were strewn with garbage—orange peels, tea leaves—and the only way for anyone to bathe was to fill a bucket with cold water.

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The workers have spoken at a number of events throughout the Midwest during a tour that took them to churches, universities, and community centers in 10 cities. Wal-Mart last month opened a Supercenter on Ford Road in Dearborn near the Southfield Freeway.

The tour is co-sponsored by a number of local community groups, the International Labor Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities.