Dilemma

I had a hard decision to make when land that I bought for growing cassava and pineapple came with a fully equipped facility for raising silkworms and had mulberry plants all ready to feed them. This has been a family business for decades and the local custom is for villagers to help each other to earn extra income. It's a blend of livelihood and tradition, and it creates employment.
In the pictures you see a labor intensive phase involving removal of cocoons by hand, one by one, from the grates. (The worms, with no eyes, find their own individual square and never crash someome else's pad.) The villagers work on a contract basis, and family members, young and old, help out.
The problem for me was that the silkworms are boiled alive in their cocoons before silk threads are mechanically spun, so right there it's nasty business for this squeamish city bred wimp.
I'm keeping the operation going for now. My plan is to gradually introduce other income generating cottage industry projects and phase this one out. We have just started a project to grow "kaew mung-korn" (dragon fruit) on a commercial scale.

Photo location: Baan Hueybong, Uthaitani province