14 DAY TRIAL // We already spoke about lab-meat and how this sci-fi accomplishment could help safeguard the global food industry from rather aggressive campaigns organized against it by some very determined animal rights activists.
Rumor has it that one other long lasting dilemma is soon to find its answer in scientific research, seeing how various specialists are now working towards lending a helping hand to the fashion industry by providing it with laboratory-grown leather.
Although one innovative entrepreneur is already busy making clothes and dishware from chicken leftovers, the fact remains that, in order for him to be able to produce these items, some birds had to perish.
However, laboratory-grown leather would by-pass this inconvenience, meaning that this highly appreciated material would be developed directly from livestock cells multiplied in a bioreactor.
Once this stage is complete, the cells are to be fused together and purified. Apparently, 3-D printing could also make its way into this newly emerging industrial process.
Tree Hugger informs us that the company presently working on presenting the general public with laboratory-grown leather is called Modern Meadow, Missouri, and that this project benefits from financial support from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal.
Commenting on the company's agenda, Andras Forgacs, who cofounded Modern Meadow and is presently employed as its CEO, stated that, “Our emphasis first is not on meat, it's on leather. The main reason is that, technically, skin is a simpler structure than meat, making it easier to produce. There's much less controversy around using leather that doesn't involve killing animals.”
“We’ve got a very good sense of how to proceed, but we’re still in the development stage,” Andras Forgacs wished to emphasize.
Should things go as planned, laboratory-grown leather could hit the markets as early as 2017. However, nobody can say for sure how consumers will respond to this new class of materials.