The cattle industry is horrid. Boycotting or avoiding leather goods is not the lever that will harm the industry. Using leather goods means less waste from the meat industry. Leather items are good
If you disagreed with killing animals for meat to begin with, you’d find this a very bizarre statement. It’s like saying we should use human teeth as a building material because it reduces waste from police violence.
I’m looking for change in our systems, but I recognize that the system is far bigger than me or you. I’m not going to lose sleep living in the only system I have access to. But in the meantime, I will bother politicians hoping to change the system that way.
I don’t think beating your wife should be legal, and I will bother politicians to chance the law. But while I’m waiting for that, of course I will continue to beat my wife. It’s the way things are.
Apples to oranges. I’m not debating you anymore
How so? The system of patriarchy is beyond any one individual to solve. Yet I’m damn certain you believe every man should still do their best not to contribute. Why should the system of animal exploitation (and environmental destruction, while we’re at it) be any different?
Is it because one of these requires actual work on your side? You are the one measuring the same thing by two different standards.
Never understood the leather/fur hate. But I’m also not vegetarian.
Because it’s rational to hate when people kill other living beings just to wear their skin. That’s fucking bizarre and grotesque.
It’s extremely not bizarre. Their skin is very useful, when prepared right. We’ve been doing it for about as long as we’ve been humans.
We’ve been doing it for about as long as we’ve been humans.
We have been doing a looot of things for a long time. Procreation without consent for example used to be a big staple in our development and yet we have ceased to find that acceptable, fortunately. Weather or not we have done something for a long time has no bearing on it beeing a good thing or not.
I mean we can also make long lasting clothes out of natural fibers without hurting animals.
But one could also use linen, hemp, ramie/urtica/nettle. However, they are more complicated to process and as the results are textiles, they are not windproof or water repellent.
The tanning process is no joke either.
You can indeed. But growing cotton has already resulted in environmental changes beyond my comprehension.
I guess the first step should be to adapt a habit of clothes repair
Growing cattle has also had a massive impact on the environment. And you often need more land for animal based materials because you both need land for the animals and the land to grow food for the animals. With cotton at least you just need land for the cotton.
Why is this always brought up, stop spreading this. Animals usually are not fed grain unless it’s harvesting time. We also do not grow food just to feed them. The grain we feed animals is shit you cannot eat. It’s roots/stalks/stems/bad/rotted plant matter. It’s the leftovers from the greens we can consume. Most animals also are raised on land that is not suitable for crops, rocky/hilly/weak topsoil land.
Mate, I have three chickens at home and I feed them a scratch mix that is mostly grain. I think you’re talking out of your arse, and I strongly doubt you have any actual animal husbandry experience.
Well it’s both. Many animals can eat a very wide diverse mixture of foods. Like cows, they can eat grass, but also hay or grains. So it could be that you’re both right.
I’m not an expert though.
isnt there this mushroom based fakeleather stuffthingie?
this for example:
https://mylo-unleather.com/material/
ok the animation is kinda gross… if you find fungi gross, but i think these are just fun little guys also, i guess its more of a thing in the future when there is more competition in the market of mycelium based textiles or whatever and prices arent that crazy…
I’ve looked at some plant based leather alternatives, and most of them mostly contain polyurethane or a similar plastic. Additionally, they tend to be not very durable.
cool, but mushrooms arent plants
Right, forgot we’re talking about mushrooms, but the same applies.
Leather is a by-product of dairy and beef production, there is vastly more leather than we use for garments. Most of it gets processed into pet food or makeup or automotive lubricants or who knows what
You are on the right track. Hides are a byproduct. Nobody kills animals for them.
Once the hides are turned into leather, they are no longer biodegradable.
Natural leather is absolutely biodegradable.
Veg tanned leather is impervious to bacteria. Fungi can damage it, albeit slowly.
Chrome tanned leather is similar but way more resistant. Probably 99% of the leather (except shoe soles) people deal with is chrome tanned.
If you try to put it in your compost you are going to be sad.
Chrome tanned leather is similar but way more resistant. Probably 99% of the leather (except shoe soles) people deal with is chrome tanned.
What would happen if you just buried such chrome tanned leather and forgot about it?
You don’t have to kill animals, though. You can make leather out of plants.
Do you have experience with those? Especially the breathability to waters resistance ratio is much worse in all plant-based leathers I have tried. Would love to find a good alternative!