Unfortunately, The beef industry isn’t going away anytime soon.
What do we do with the hides if we don’t use them to make Leather boots etc. ?
It’s hard to believe that using (likely petroleum based) alternatives, has less of an environmental impact than using something that would have gone into the trash.
Sure leather supports the beef industry, but if it didn’t we’d still have the beef industry, and what do we do with that leather?
Edit: I thought about it a bit more, the less people use leather the cheaper it will become.
It will still be used, because it’s so useful, profits will just go down a lot, so less money for the beef industry.
So that’s a win.
However meat consumption is increasing in certain segments of the population. There is no guarantee this trend will continue especially since it’s unhealthy to eat so much of it.
The meat industry is heavily subsidized by governments of the world and is not sustainable with our planetary resources, we cannot keep clearing Amazonian forests for cattle ranching.
It’s important to note that the use of fur has dropped dramatically in recent years.
Sure but that leather could have been used to make leather boots, that could last decades.
Instead petroleum based alternatives will be used, it needs to be weighed against those emissions.
This poses an interesting question…
Which is worse the suffering and exploitation of animals for their skin, or releasing more plastics in the world?
The leather industry keeps the environmental destructive beef industry alive.
The Beef Industry Knew Its Climate Impact as Early as 1989 — and Worked to Obfuscate the Science
Leather is not a natural or sustainable by-product, it’s a profitable material produced at the expense of the planet
Unfortunately, The beef industry isn’t going away anytime soon. What do we do with the hides if we don’t use them to make Leather boots etc. ?
It’s hard to believe that using (likely petroleum based) alternatives, has less of an environmental impact than using something that would have gone into the trash.
Sure leather supports the beef industry, but if it didn’t we’d still have the beef industry, and what do we do with that leather?
Edit: I thought about it a bit more, the less people use leather the cheaper it will become. It will still be used, because it’s so useful, profits will just go down a lot, so less money for the beef industry. So that’s a win.
It will go away sooner if everyone stopped using leather.
You’re right, thanks for the polite discourse. My mind has been changed.
Thousands of people are going vegan every year thus the force of supply and demand would require the beef industry to scale back operations.
Sure, but global meat consumption is increasing, both overall and per-capita
However meat consumption is increasing in certain segments of the population. There is no guarantee this trend will continue especially since it’s unhealthy to eat so much of it.
The meat industry is heavily subsidized by governments of the world and is not sustainable with our planetary resources, we cannot keep clearing Amazonian forests for cattle ranching.
It’s important to note that the use of fur has dropped dramatically in recent years.
Eating meat is not unhealthy.
Eating too much of anything is unhealthy, but having chicken and eggs in your diet is certainly not unhealthy.
supply and demand is a theory about price discovery. it doesn’t dictate production levels
Leather isn’t a free byproduct, in many cases less CO2 is emitted by not using the hide and just producing an alternative instead
Sure but that leather could have been used to make leather boots, that could last decades. Instead petroleum based alternatives will be used, it needs to be weighed against those emissions.
Leather is a co-product, and it directly supports the beef industry. So yes, if leather sales decrease, the beef industry becomes less financially viable without a corresponding increase in government subsidies.