World Ark Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 19) Weaving Success For China’s Struggling Farmers Though its name may suggest otherwise, Heifer International gives more than just cows. The organization works with a variety of locally adapted, culturally appropriate animals. In southern China, the silkworm is one small animal that produces giant results for poor farmers. By Jaman Matthews | WORLD ARK WRITER Photography by Jake Lyell A young woman in southern China wanders through a grove of mulberry trees on a cool morning, her eyes turned upward. Something is eating away at the leaves, and Leizu must uncover the culprit. She pauses beneath the trees when something—Plop!—falls into her cup of tea. Leizu picks a nearly invisible hair-like thread from her cup and winds it around her finger. Even wet, she notices that the fiber keeps her finger warm in the chilly air. What is this thin thread with such peculiar properties? Leizu finds her answer at the bottom of the tea cup—a lustrous white cocoon. And, so the legend goes, Leizu discovered not only that it was silkworms devouring the trees; she had also discovered silk. Leizu went on to breed silkworms in her own special mulberry grove and even invented the reel used to wind the tiny filaments into thread. Fifty centuries later, women and men in southern China, including members of several Heifer International projects, are using Leizu’s discoveries to earn a living. www.heifer.org March/April 2008 | WORLD ARK 19 http://www.heifer.org
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