Farmers on the cash trail with snail slime

NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand - Giant snails inch across a plate of pumpkin and cucumber in central Thailand, an "organic" diet to tease the prized collagen-rich mucus from the mollusks, which to some cosmetic firms are now more valuable than gold.

The snails at Phatinisiri Thangkeaw's farm were once the scourge of rice farmers, loathed for eating the buds of new crops.

"Farmers used to throw them on the road or in the rivers," Phatinisiri said. "But now they sell them to me to earn extra money."