More skin in the game

[knocker]

Leather grown using biotechnology is about to hit the catwalk

Genetic engineering is used to make leather without animals

Quote

LEATHERMAKING is an ancient craft. The oldest leather artefact found so far is a 5,500-year-old shoe from a cave in Armenia, but paintings in Egyptian tombs show that, 7,000 years ago, leather was being turned into all manner of things, from sandals to buckets to military equipment. It is a fair bet that the use of animal skins for shelter and clothing goes back hundreds of thousands of years at least.

Leathermaking is also, though, a nasty business. In 18th-century London the soaking of putrefying hides in urine and lime, to loosen any remaining flesh and hair, and the subsequent pounding of dog faeces into those skins to soften and preserve them, caused such a stench that the business was outlawed from the City proper and forced downwind and across the river into Bermondsey. In countries such as India and Japan, the trade tainted people as well as places and was (and often still remains) the preserve of social outcasts such as Dalits and Burakumin.

https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21727059-genetic-engineering-used-make-leather-without-animals-leather-grown-using

Paywalled so more detail here

Would you wear a leather jacket grown in a lab?

https://qz.com/901643/would-you-wear-a-leather-jacket-grown-in-a-lab/

[Snowycat]

Not that I'm a fan of leather but yes I think I would.  Would never countenance wearing real fur as I only like my fur on its original animal models so its no difference to wearing synthetic fur to me.  The only real leather items I possess is my saddle and bridle.  Have given up riding recently it seems leather saddles are now hard to sell,  synthetic saddles with tree altering capabilities appear to be the way to go