LAB-GROWN LEATHER: A MORE CULTURED CHOICE
Brooklyn-based startup Modern Meadow, founded in 2011, has secured a total of $53.5 million in funding to grow leather in labs—instead of from livestock.
The cruelty-free business model could end the slaughter of animals for leather goods, but it also has another benefit— cutting down on the physically and chemically intensive processes needed to produce leather using traditional means.
Biofabrication also allows them to “design, grow, and assemble collagen” along with other proteins to produce leather that is biologically identical to traditional leather, minus the unwanted details that make traditional leather processing toxic.
“We’re making a material that has no hair flesh or fat on it. So the liming and toxicity you see elsewhere in the leather trade is eliminated,” Modern Meadow CEO and co-founder Andras Forgacs noted.
And because the laboratory fabrication process gives them more control, designers could order leather with specific characteristics rather than simply choosing from what’s naturally available. This flexibility would help the company secure its market and achieve their goal of becoming the world’s go-to source of leather.
But leather is not the only thing Modern Meadow will be growing in the lab. They are also growing meat, because Forgacs is a firm believer that growing leather and meat together is a more cultured choice than slaughtering animals.
Finish reading: A No-Slaughter Leather Startup Just Raised $53 Million
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