Industry has boomed in Thailand, with more than 80 snail farms in one province alone feeding cosmetics demand For years, they were the unwelcome slimy plague on the farmers of Thailand. But a global cosmetic demand for snail secretions, thought to offset ageing and give the skin a dewy glow, has led to a growing new business for snail farms, where the molluscs are “milked” for their slime, known as mucin. Over the past three years, Thai farmers and opportunistic locals have begun keeping the creatures they once desperately tried to rid themselves of, as snail slime has become worth more than gold and the global slime industry has boomed to be worth an estimated $314m. Continue reading...