Land Of Plenty

For the highland people of Thailand, a healthy harvest means everything— and Snow Fox Skincare is buying

- Taylore Glynn

On a steamy summer morning in northern Thailand, a group of female farmers takes a tea break. Huddled inside a wooden hut, the women talk about their kids and the latest Korean soap operas while warm rain falls outside. They have been up since 4 a.m., tending to the crops that feed their families before traveling to this hillside just outside Chiang Rai to harvest tea leaves for export.

Decades ago, these highlands weren’t so placid. Much of the region was influenced by the drug trade, and the impoverished local people were forced to grow opium poppies to make enough money to survive. The land itself was suffering too: Farmers resorted to slash-and-burn methods to clear forests and make room for more poppies but ended up destroying natural resources and biodiversity in the process.