Silk
Cultivated silk production, known as sericulture was developed in China many centuries ago, and its initial monopoly on the production of this precious fibre led to the forging of the significant ‘silk road’ trading route shown on this map. Today, it is still a relatively high cost and low volume commodity, with world fibre demand a little under 0.15 million tons per year. Conventional silk production involves little in the way of fertilisers or pesticides, as the silk moth is very sensitive. However, the effluents produced in processing the fibres are potential groundwater pollutants.
