Firm Backed By PayPal Billionaire Claims Lab Grown Leather Will Be On Sale In Five Years
For those who love leather but hate killing animals, we have great news for you! Leather grown in a lab could be on sale within the next five years, according to a firm backed by PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel.
Modern Meadow, a firm also developing lab grown meat, says its first product could change the clothing industry.
The firm says the firm lab grow leather could be on sale within five years.
“Our emphasis first is not on meat, it’s on leather,” company cofounder and CEO Andras Forgacs said.
“The main reason is that, technically, skin is a simpler structure than meat, making it easier to produce.”
The firm said part of its decision to focus on leather was the public reaction to its plans for.
“Anecdotally, we’ve found that around 40 percent of people would be willing to try cultured meat,” he says.
“There’s much less controversy around using leather that doesn’t involve killing animals.”
The firm’s biggest obstacle is finding a way to mass produce the cells necessary for lab-grown meat and leather.
Modern Meadow’s meat and leather would be competing for a share of a combined $2.5 trillion market, Forgacs says.
Modern Meadow knows the road ahead won’t be easy, and that they have much work to do.
“The consumer acceptance of such products may not be without challenges,” the firm revealed in a submission to the United States Department of Agriculture.
“We expect it will first appeal to culinary early-adopter consumers and the segment of the vegetarian community that rejects meat for ethical reasons.
“With reduction in price, it can reach the masses with religious restrictions on meat consumption (people restricted to Hindu, Kosher, Halal diets) and finally populations with limited access to safe meat production.”
Elite.
