In my travels on the internet I came across the following site - a community project where hugely under-priviledged people from Namibia are working together to aid farmers and live stock and to make a living for themselves. I quote from the homepage....
Kalahari Tussah is a development project in Namibia, Southern Africa, focusing on utilizing the cocoons of an indigenous African silk moth, Gonometa postica. Though these cocoons have been utilized for millennia by the indigenous San communities of the Kalahari as a delicacy, or for making dance rattles, they have escaped the notice of the modern world until recently. Though it was known that the cocoons consist of a high quality wild silk, most of the cocoons was allowed to rot on the African veldt. However, with the advent of commercial farming in the Kalahari the cocoons became notorious for causing the death of livestock in some areas. Farmers started to insist that something must be done to eradicate the scourge. This initiative was born from the realization that a realistic solution had to be found to resolve the problem; that communities in the Kalahari are destitute with few opportunities for poverty alleviation; and that the silk cocoons represented a valued luxury natural fibre resource. The site is http://www.kalaharitussah.com/index.php Interesting read. Micki Scotland - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com