Actually demand is quite large for silk but the price of labor makes it unfeasible but quite a few tried. It would be like trying to reopen a gold mine in california that has been closed for a hundred years. You wont make enough to pay for the labor because gold the that is left is not feasible.
If you want to know where the mulberry comes from look up Belding Michigan. It is about 25 miles from Lansing.
Was the silk capital of the USA in the early 1900. Take a quick google maps tour of the town. It is quite convenient that google apparently went through town in early autumn. Just look around and notice how many redish trees there are. Then find a spot to zoom in and you will see that most of the redish trees are mulberry's. They are EVERYWHERE around the town. They seem to have left their trees when they shut down operation and in 100 years the trees seem to have spread around quite a bit
Fresh mulberry would not be hard for Kim to get even if he didn't have silkworm chow.
It grows like a weed around Lansing and in 46 of the lower 48 states. Nevada and Arizona are the only 2 states in the country that Mulberry isn't found in.
For the R&D I could see Kim getting the mulberry for free.
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