The area around Grasse, France, is renowned for its flower plantations. Farmers like Joseph Mul have been producing roses, jasmine, and lavender for centuries. Mul’s rose absolute, a liquid extracted from rose petals, sells for $3650 a pound. Explains Mul, “Picking roses will never be done by machine.” The rose petals are carefully harvested by hand during the early morning. By ten o’clock, the heat of the sun beguns to wilt the flowers, and the workers are done for the day. “Labor is 60 percent of the cost,” say Mul.