Even though silk is a natural fiber that has been woven into fabric to dress China’s Empresses since 2900 BC, silk is just starting to be proclaimed as a “natural” fabric, but how organic, sustainable, ethical and healthy is silk?
The finest, most desirable silk comes from the mulberry silkworm, which is actually a caterpillar and not a worm. Raised by professional keepers in China in the past, the mulberry silkworm has been totally domesticated and now it can not live without humans for their feeding and care. There are no any wild silkworm moth that roam and feed in the wild. Across several thousand years of captive breeding, the silkworm, known also as Bombyx mori, evolved into a blind moth that cannot fly. It lives only a few days and lays about 500 eggs and then dies within four or five days. The silkworm moth has even lost the ability to eat because of undeveloped structures of their mouth.
