Californian Firm Touts 'Mushroom Leather' as Sustainability Gamechanger (theguardian.com) 128
An anonymous reader shares a report: Vegan alternatives to leather could save more than just animals. The scientists behind fashion's new latest must-have -- the "mushroom leather" handbag -- believe that mycelium, a material grown from fungi which can be engineered to look and feel like calfskin or sheepskin, could help save the planet. Speaking to the Guardian before a talk at the Business of Fashion Voices conference in Oxfordshire, Dr Matt Scullin, CEO of biomaterials company MycoWorks, forecast that mushroom leather could be a sustainability gamechanger, "unlocking a future of design which begins with the material, not with the object."
Fine Mycelium, a patented material which can be grown from fungi in trays in a matter of weeks, replicates the appearance and feel of leather while outperforming it in strength and durability. The material recently made its high fashion debut as an exclusive HermÃs handbag. "It can give the same emotional response as an animal leather. It has that hand-feel of rarity," says Scullin. On a planet of finite natural resources, Scullin believes both the technology and the mindset of carbon-neutral, grown-to-order mushroom leather could be "revolutionary" -- and have implications for innovation in manufacture beyond fashion.
Fine Mycelium, a patented material which can be grown from fungi in trays in a matter of weeks, replicates the appearance and feel of leather while outperforming it in strength and durability. The material recently made its high fashion debut as an exclusive HermÃs handbag. "It can give the same emotional response as an animal leather. It has that hand-feel of rarity," says Scullin. On a planet of finite natural resources, Scullin believes both the technology and the mindset of carbon-neutral, grown-to-order mushroom leather could be "revolutionary" -- and have implications for innovation in manufacture beyond fashion.
Devilstrand is a real thing? (Score:2)
Where my space cannibals at?
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Where my space cannibals at?
In Space -- duh.
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I guess the fact that I read that as "space cannabis" says something about where my head is at today.
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My current playthrough of Rimworld uses the Smokeleaf Industry mod and is exactly that. My colony is like that trend with cakes, cut into anything and "Hey! It's made from space pot!"
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Since this is from mushrooms, it's more like psylocibin. But probably a different mushroom. Of course, with a bit of tailoring you might do both... That would produce a differnt meaning for "I'll eat my hat!".
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You don't need to approximate leather (Score:2)
Re:You don't need to approximate leather (Score:4, Informative)
Except that relies upon petroleum which is a limited resource as well, and also really doesn't have the look and feel of leather as much as the mycelium product does. If you're wearing pleather everyone can tell it's fake.
Re:You don't need to approximate leather (Score:4, Insightful)
While it is true that many plastics are made out of petroleum feedstocks this is not actually a necessity as the polymer chemical industry has a lot of flexibility in the feedstocks it can consume to produce plastics. Also, as a rough estimate, the mass of polymer produced worldwide is about 10% of the mass of petroleum liquid production, so one may expect that if petroleum is diverted into the higher value end use of making plastic (as opposed to just burning it) that the current world oil supply (estimated at 47 years right now) would last for several centuries, and further none of the carbon is going into the atmosphere it is all - often sadly - staying right here on Earth for an indefinite time that might be termed, on normal human scales, "forever".
So most of the problems that exist with petroleum (air pollution both local and global in the form of CO2) use do not apply when talking about its use in plastic products.
Now the lack of biodegradaility of polyester and nylon, that is another problem in itself.
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So most of the problems that exist with petroleum (air pollution both local and global in the form of CO2) use do not apply when talking about its use in plastic products.
Errr no. Not really. The process of making plastic is *insanely* energy intensive. We largely tollerate it because we have little alterative and we share that environmental cost with many other essential products (fuel, not just for cars, but for shipping etc).
If we stopped setting petroleum end products on fire plastic will still have to contend with methane flaring during oil production, the transport of oil (which at that point will hopefully be carbon neutral), fractionation, polymerisation, then a whol
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the emissions in the process of going from dead dinosaurs to cheap plether jacket
How about going from renewable energy to cheap plether jacket?
Electricity is 100% hydro where I live.
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to make a handbag. You can just make it out of nylon or polyester, like any school backpack.
Wait, so your solution to making a sustainable product is to suggest petroleum alternatives?
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Actually, why is that a bad idea? Aren't we better off with the petroleum locked as a solid in a product so that it can never end up as carbon dioxide? Consider it carbon sequestration in a way. If we left the petroleum in the ground it will probably get used as fuel eventually, who does that help? As a purse though, it can't be grabbed .. the petroleum will stay a purse forever.
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the petroleum will stay a purse forever
You don't really think it will be a purse forever, i doubt it lasts 100 years. Worse it will over time degrade into that lovely category known as 'micro-plastics'.
Better to just leave it in the ground.
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If it is in a landfill, it is less likely to make its way to the ocean and become a problem microplastic.
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Extra petroleum is burned off to mine the oil then to process the plastic feedstocks. So not really such a great idea compared to just leaving it in the ground.
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Yes, so? Ultimately a percent of it will stay as plastic. Leaving it in the ground means it will get used as fuel for something ... a vehicle maybe.
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Leaving it in the ground means leaving it in the ground. Choosing between something made from petroleum and something not made from petroleum means that, in the latter case, you don't use that petroleum. Leaving it in the ground only means that it will be ultimately used as fuel for something if you're saying that all the petroleum will eventually get used as fuel for something until we run out.
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you could just make it out of leather too. I have it on good authority that making bags out of leather works quite well, and while it is a rather new technology, after a few iterations i'm sure we could figure out a way to make it work -- without invoking new fangled chemistry and bio-engineering wizardy. They also supposedly last nearly forever with very minimal routine maintenance and care.
I mean that cow is going to be slaughtered irrespective of your personal feelings towards eating meat
Re: You don't need to approximate leather (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: You don't need to approximate leather (Score:5, Insightful)
Damn near every part of a pig has a use.
The only person who needs this alternative is some Vegan who has sworn off even using hide from an already dead animal for things like wallets and moccasin.
There is a secondary objective to having alternatives like these. The fact that every part of an animal is used means that there is added profit besides just the meat. If something like this became mainstream and cheaper than leather, it would drive down the price of leather which would either decrease the farmer's profit or drive up the price of beef which would decrease both the supply and the demand.
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look around you.. $4T in spending in the last 18 mos. The price of beef has almost doubled year over last and I dont see demand going anywhere.
My guess is that many families have reduced the type and amount of meat. I've been buying less bacon and less beef and buying other less costly meats. Currently meat alternatives are more expensive and don't taste as good yet their production is still growing much quicker than beef. If they succeed in either making it cheaper or better tasting then demand would skyrocket even more than it already is. The cheaper should be fairly easy to achieve as using plants directly is much more efficient than using
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Does a cheaper substitute drive down the price of the thing it is substituting? The sheer delusional gall you show at spouting econ-babble suggests you're quite comfortable at hand-waving whatever nonsensical premise it takes to support your conclusion. Garbage in, garbage out.
The effect of a cheaper substitute on price is a nuanced question hinging on psychology. Psychology is a worthy field of study, but the people least qualified to pontificate about it are, without a doubt, Economists. Economists ar
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Does a cheaper substitute drive down the price of the thing it is substituting?
It doesn't necessarily drive down the price but it does usually decrease the demand. Real vanilla and real maple syrup are both far superior to the fake stuff but the fake stuff is significantly cheaper so dominates the market. Decreasing demand doesn't always decrease the price though as the price is many times tied to manufacturing costs. In some cases decreased demand actually increases the price as it becomes a specialty niche market.
For the beef market, decreasing demand for leather and the profit f
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GPP explicitly said "at this point leather is a byproduct of the meat industry", so it's pretty clear that they don't think cows are being slaughtered just for their leather.
Re:You don't need to approximate leather (Score:5, Interesting)
Mushrooms > Livestock
Mycoprotein [quorn.us] is a suitable replacement for meat, combine that with this new product to replace meat by-products and you relieve the need to raise 1 BILLION cattle (even more if you start adding in swine, goats, etc), which in turn great reduces methane emissions.
I would accept living off of a vat of textured myco protein if it means reducing both effects of climate change and the cruelty to animals which is found throughout the food chain.
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Peoples food and diets are a very sensitive topic, even more than politics. Being food is so ingrained into everyone culture, making them change their diets will be nearly impossible. The really only good alternative is not try to convince a meat eater to go vegan, or someone to break kosher, or eat something they normally consider disgusting or impure just won't work, but what would work is just offering alternatives and give solutions where people don't feel the need to eat meat for every meal. For exa
Re:You don't need to approximate leather (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed, with qualifications
I have spent most of my life consuming copious amounts of meat, mostly since it is an easy source of protein.
In my 40's I was a massive gym rat (benched 315 lbs while weighing 170 lbs and 3% body fat), but still ended up with serious hypertension in my 50's (BP of 210/140 before getting treatment).
A recent study on the negative cardiovascular effects of carnitine (converted to TMAO by gut bacteria, which causes Coronary Artery Disease and Artery Stenosis) [nih.gov] finally convinced me to forgo most meat (still had turkey for Thanksgiving and eat vast amounts of fish and shellfish).
imo, most humans would live healthier and longer if they simply cut back on meat consumption, and they should be offered this info even if decide not to follow it.
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>A recent study on the negative cardiovascular effects of carnitine (converted to TMAO by gut bacteria, which causes Coronary Artery Disease and Artery Stenosis)
That is a very bogus study. One in a line of studies, written by vegans, trying to single out compounds in meat and blaming them for health effects that don't even exist when you examine the randomized controlled trials rather than the unsafe epi studies. Try heme iron, or saturated fat or cholesterol. All of these 'bad things' have been comprehe
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You should read The Plant Paradox. Convinced me to cut down to 4-6 ounces of meat per day, as much as I enjoy it. I think it's safe to say excess meat causes problems, as does living/eating in an unnatural way (in short, sweet tastes out of season triggering the body to stay in weight gain mode).
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Thanks for the insight, I agree with the need for cardio, but on the brink of 60, I have much different dietary needs than I did in my 40's and much less meat is part of it.
Never used anything steroidy, and used to intersperse cardio and yoga with strength training, I just hit a point in my life where stopped going to the gym and took on a lot of work and family related stress, which most likely contributed to the hypertension. I do believe that some degree of hardening of the arteries with age and past die
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Yknow what would ACTUALLY make a difference in greenhouse emissions? Doing something about the fact that a mere 15 cargo ships owned by multinational corporations that singlehandedly out-pollute literally every car on the face of the earth. Or doing something about China and India.
But you won't do that. What you will do is demand middle class and poor people eat mushrooms and bugs, give up air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter, take cold showers, and stop owning cars.... while supporting
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So simply by getting rid of 3 nations, we can fix climate change? Have to start with America as they're the ones who encourage the other countries by buying their products and the average American puts out way more CO2 then the average Indian or Chinese. Those container ships main purpose is supplying Americans with stuff as well so perhaps just get rid of America?
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Yknow what would ACTUALLY make a difference in greenhouse emissions? Doing something about the fact that a mere 15 cargo ships owned by multinational corporations that singlehandedly out-pollute literally every car on the face of the earth.
Your whataboutism is stupid and you don't seem to be able to separate the difference between the word "pollution" and "greenhouse emissions". Shipping freight is a tiny contributor to greenhouse gas emissions globally counting for less than 1.7% of greenhouse gas emissions across the entire industry to say nothing of your stupid assertion that it's all due to 15 vessels. Personal road transportation alone contributes over 10x that.
Go back and re-read your sources. You'll find they are talking exclusively ab
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Careful. Threatening someone's red meat supply is a direct assault on their manhood. /s I don't think you or I will see the day where red meat is obsolete, but there is nothing wrong with attempting to find alternatives.
You might be surprised how many cost sensitive consumers would be willing to buy fake "ground beef" if it was cheaper than regular ground beef.
It's currently sold as a specialty but I believe one of the goals is to eventually be cheaper than meat and because it is plant/mushroom based it should be able to reach that goal fairly easily as it eliminates the complex task of taking care of animals that inefficiently convert large quantities of plant calories to meat calories.
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I would gladly hunt mushrooms tomorrow for a myco-burger today!
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But seriously how many nerds have every killed their own meat or even seen it been killed?
This one.
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But seriously how many nerds have every killed their own meat or even seen it been killed?
The closest most Americans come to hunting is hunting for bargains on the meat at Walmart.
It depends on where you grow up and if you are more of a geek or a nerd. If you grow up in rural areas then you will likely have been hunting no matter how nerdy you are. I also know a lot more geeks than nerds. Geeks tend to want to learn by experience instead of just books. Myself and many of my geeky friends have hunted, raised bees, scuba dived, and any other random hobby of the year or month.
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> there is absolutely no reason we couldn't switch to plant (or whatever) based meat replacements.
There are plenty of reasons.
E.G. Roughly 100% of current farmable land is farmed. The remainder is useless for crops, but fine for grazing animals. There is no way to increase the farmed surface area of the earth to grow enough low-nutrient-density plants to replace the high-nutrient-density, carbon neutral meat that ruminants make grazing on the unfarmable land.
We would ultimately all fall sick with various
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>we could all stand to drop (say) a day of meat from our diets with no harm to our health at all
My health improved immensely when I stopped eating plants. I'm finding your assertion hard to reconcile with experience.
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My health improved immensely when I stopped eating plants. I'm finding your assertion hard to reconcile with experience.
Do you have some sort of uncommon medical condition? Otherwise your assertion is pretty hard to believe. For example, why don't you have scurvy?
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My health improved immensely when I stopped eating plants. I'm finding your assertion hard to reconcile with experience.
Do you have some sort of uncommon medical condition? Otherwise your assertion is pretty hard to believe. For example, why don't you have scurvy?
For this you will find the answers in nutritional science.
The foundational issue is that for 2 million years of our evolution, we were top carnviores (carnivores eating carnivores) and so we carry a lot of adaption to that.
The detail that is relevant is that we need and use vitamin C to metabolize carbs. If we aren't eating the carbs, we use a lot less vitamin C and so don't need as much. Also there is vitamin C in fresh meat, a lot more so in 100% grass fed beef - finishing beef with grain depletes the C i
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For this you will find the answers in nutritional science.
There don't seem to be a lot of answers in nutritional science there. Has anyone actually scientifically proven that most of the vitamin C we need is just for digesting carbohydrates, or is that just speculation? Looking around, there doesn't seem to be agreement on whether vitamin C is required to metabolize carbohydrates or if carbohydrates simply are preferentially absorbed, blocking vitamin C from being taken up from the body or if there actually isn't an effect that means that pure carnivores don't nee
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Well it takes many years to grow an animal for its hide, as well there is a lot of chemicals used to treat it.
That being said, is their a supply issue on getting animal hide? I would think that the demand for meat is still offering a good supply of hides to be tanned, and if you are going to still want your steaks and hamburgers, there is going to be a supply of hide available to be used as well.
If we as a culture are to reduce our needs for Animal based products, Leather industry isn't a good starting po
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Given the current price of decent leather, I'd say that YES, there is a supply issue in accessing a good supply of good quality hides.
But would this really be any cheaper? Would it really be more durable? There I've got a few questions.
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you could just make it out of leather too.
The thing that lasts "nearly forever" is the boiled, hard stuff, not the soft, nice to touch stuff.
This product is like soft leather, but is less affected by water infiltration.
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I mean that cow is going to be slaughtered irrespective of your personal feelings towards eating meat
This presumes that nothing will displace beef. Frankly, this is a shortsighted view because as soon as the obscene subsides start getting peeled back or emissions start getting taxed then beef is going to start being displaced because of cost. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind that cows are slaughtered but I do mind the methane they emit because they are being fed things they didn't evolve to properly process.
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i don't think the demand is going to go away any time soon. i also think the methane FUD is kind of silly. it's been pointed out before, but cargo ships generate exponentially more GHG than beef, by a huge margin. You can at least eat the cow, the cheap chinese dogshit that gets sent over, not so much.
all that said though, the outcome of what you're suggesting might just be more farmers switching over to ranching (at various sizes of operation) if the price of beef continues to rise; which i think would be
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I'm perfectly aware that cargo ships generate obscene amounts of GHGs but that's literally whataboutism. It doesn't matter if demand remains high because plant based replacements have already been shown to be a viable replacement. I'm really tired of subsidizing pollution, so I welcome their replacement.
The good news is that they've cut the antibiotics that were being fed to cattle but ranching cattle isn't really economically viable on the free market. Grazing cattle get a really sweet deal from the gov
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We've had a lot of plant based fabrics like hemp and flax to make bags from for millennia (long before cotton). They don't provide the same durability as properly made polyester. But they do work reasonably well.
I'm not exactly sure why they chose handbags as a prime example of application here. (Something cultural about California?) For clothing that's worn on human skin such criteria as "feels like calf of sheep skin" can matter a lot more than for a
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For clothing that's worn on human skin such criteria as "feels like calf of sheep skin" can matter a lot more than for a bag.
Leather handbags and such are a "luxury item" (tm). I'd assume the logic is that if you an slide this one past the most discerning amongst us, the rest of us plebs will just smile, nod, fall in line, and wear our mushroom boots.
I've never understood leather (Score:2)
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For welders it is also very hard to set on fire, and unlike polymers if it does start burning it won't melt onto your skin.
My first question with mushroom leather is how quick does it rot? Given how fast mushrooms rot when wet I'm more than a little concerned. Or is there a tanning process that will work to stabilize it similar to the way it leather tanning works?
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It behaves more or less like leather, it is even more robust.
It is not a "Champion" it is most likely related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
You'll welcome the coming age then (Score:2)
Leather does take care, but even a little will make it last quite a long way. I used to buy a new leather wallet every five years or so, because the old one would be falling apart. Now I put a very little "leather fat" on it maybe twice a year, and it has lasted me over fifteen years. My shoes really do need replacing because the rubber soles have holes in them, but the leather upper has lasted over twelve years now. Again with regular care. And the leather is much nicer when taken care of, too. Just feel t
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You have not worn enough leather.
First of all, the main reason people like leather is it's toughness. They want a jacket you can wear on a motorcycle and act as armor so you can survive a minor fall. They want tough shoes and bags that can be tossed around.
For a lot of products you do not need yield to be comfortable. Shoes, bags, hats, etc. can be stiff without any problems
It is tough, but only unyielding and uncomfortable if you make it too thick. One of Leather's nicest qualities is that it is can
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Higher quality boots ($200 and more) with genuine leather can combine durability and resistance against water and dirt (if waterproofed with stuff like Gore-Tex) and wearing comfort on difficult terrain over a prolonged time that I've never experienced with any purely synthetic fiber boot so far. So I'm not exactly sure about what kind of le
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There was a period, I think largely the 30s and 40s, where it was common to findCadillac and other luxury cars with leather front seats and cloth back seats.
These weren't the owner driven models, but those that would have a hired driver and the owners in the back.
The new-fangled cloth seats were more expensive, and not to be wasted on the hired help . . .
I drove a '37 Packard V-12 limousine set up this way at a recent auction. It also had so little leg room for the driver that I don't think anyone much ab
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My boots are leather because I work in conditions that damage footwear. Plastic ones get ground away in no time as I crawl around on elderly, rough tarmac. My > $200 Carolinas have a hole through one toe, good thing I got [plastic] safety toes as that means I can still wear them without having to get the toe capped. A plastic outer boot would have lasted less than a quarter as long, not saving me any money anyway.
Its still animal skin, almost. (Score:3)
Re:Its still animal skin, almost. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's actually more analogous to insect skin than animal skin. The protein that gives fungal tissue strength is chitin, the same that forms insect exoskeleton. The analog in animal skin is keratin.
The real question (Score:2)
When is Nintendo going to license some of these handbags?
breakfast is served (Score:2)
Isn't most leather a byproduct? (Score:2)
Who wants some sliced handbag fried in some butter with rashes of soy based bacon substitute? Nom nom.
My belief was that leather comes mostly from the same animals we eat. We are actually really good at using virtually everything, even the inedible parts are used for other chemical processes or for pet food. The whole idea is that nothing goes to waste. Unlike fur, I don't think we raise animals specifically for their leather.
Maybe the fungi leather is intended for a future where we no longer raise animals for food, it is all just synthesized in a lab. I see nothing good about that future, I'm glad I
So long as it stops growing (Score:3)
Re:So long as it stops growing (Score:5, Funny)
That would be a spore-atic outcome at best, the morel of the story?
don't worry about shiitake that won't happen
(the well hath run dry of puns.. and it was such fertile ground too)
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Something smells around here.
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Why not just engineer humans to grow knobs of meat on their forearms which have no nerves so can be harvested without pain (kind of like nails and hair). We could eat mostly veggies but when we want to have some meat we could harvest it off our own forearms and cook it. I have heard human meat tastes like Pork.
That is what fat is for. No amputation or cooking required.
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I think I read that hentai, something about "cursed armor"
They probably ate mushrooms (Score:2)
They probably ate some mushrooms off someone else's front lawn in North Vancouver before coming up with this idea.
Elon Musk, pl step aside, we have new winner ... (Score:2)
of ...
Most hyperbolic, over the top, jumping the shark, thing with a blurb "it will save the planet!"
It is not the nominee Aang The Last Air Bender, he did save the planet, but that is a different story.
It is not the nominee with a 70,000$ electric car
The ...
Winner ...
Is ...
Drum Roll Please ...
Fake leather to replace Louis Vuitton handbag material.
The real news (Score:4, Interesting)
...is that they found a way to make mycelium durable. Yes, fungal mycelium can have strength and feel like leather. The other thing it does is rot extremely fast - turns into goo in a matter of days. They must have found a procedure analog to leather tanning to prevent that from happening.
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...is that they found a way to make mycelium durable.
/nod
So they claim: "Fine Mycelium engineers mycelium cells as they grow to create three dimensional structures that are densely entwined and inherently strong; Fine Mycelium is a patented process to grow materials with superior strength, durability and performance."
https://www.mycoworks.com/our-... [mycoworks.com]
Re:The real news (Score:4, Informative)
...is that they found a way to make mycelium durable. Yes, fungal mycelium can have strength and feel like leather. The other thing it does is rot extremely fast - turns into goo in a matter of days. They must have found a procedure analog to leather tanning to prevent that from happening.
Other groups are planning to turn mycelium into long term building materials, so I think they have the rotting thing mostly figured. https://www.theverge.com/22257... [theverge.com]
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Still the same issue. Fungal structures, be it mycelium or fruiting bodies (what we call "mushrooms") have the same problem with rotting very easily.
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Nope. They hold thousands of years. And if you use it as "cloth", aka what the story is abut, it lasts just like leather.
Fashion treaadmill (Score:2)
Some fancy new alternative product comes out, and is first marketed as being ultra-fashionable and for the elite.
Assuming it is actually cheaper than the alternative (and it's hard to think how it wouldn't be, in this case), within a few years it'll start replacing the original product in the market, and become mass-produced and cheap, displacing animal leathers and vinyl, and animal leather will instead become ultra-fashionable and for the elite only.
Cost Matters (Score:2)
In order to be a 'sustainability gamechanger' it needs to be affordable by Joe and Jane Average, and ideally less expensive than the leather it is intended to replace.
A handbag priced for the 'beautiful 1%-ers' may work as a proof-of-concept or test-case, but mushroom-leather needs price parity with cow-leather in order to take serious market share. You'll only get to 'sustainability gamechanger' by being better than the competition.
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Well, that they're marketing it first to the place that pays them the most doesn't prove anything about what it costs. It may be rather cheap to make. Or, of course, not.
And fancy handbags aren't really known for needing exceptionally durable leather, either. But it *might* be exceptionally durable anyway.
You're right that this market doesn't prove their wider claims, but it's also not an argument against them.
Related: mango leather (Score:2)
There's also a company that turns expired mangoes into a leather substitute. (You know how fibrous mango flesh is when it gets stick between your teeth).
They say it's not as durable as regular leather, not do they show end products. There're also a lot of proprietary non-plant-based additives involved.
https://youtu.be/rcieZYwyEiA [youtu.be]
The Lesson: Profit over Sustainability (Score:2)
From the article deck:
Vegan leather alternative isn’t just the hot fashion must-have – it could teach us about consumption and waste.
From the article:
Fine Mycelium, a patented material which can be grown from fungi in trays in a matter of weeks, replicates the appearance and feel of leather while outperforming it in strength and durability. The material recently made its high fashion debut as an exclusive Hermès handbag.
So like all these other greenwashed pseudo-sustainability companies, their goal is going to be to capitalize on the rich's desire to virtue signal with one hand and brags about exclusivity with the other likely with the promise of using rich people to pay for the R&D before releasing patents so the masses can get it too. If they REALLY cared about sustainability, they would just release the patent.
Oh, and then there's the other company who wants perfect to be the e
Finite natural resources? (Score:2)
I realize things such as coal, natural gas, uranium and of course the rare Earth minerals are finite, but I didn't know cows or sheep were finite. I thought so long as they have grass they'll reproduce ad infinitum.
raising cattle for leather (Score:2)
Doesn't happen on a large scale. There is simply a very vibrant market to make use of the waste from all the cattle we slaughter for food. I guess we could be boiling hides into dog food and jello if we want to stop wearing leather.
If you can make materials out of plastic then you can make them from bioplastic, with enough time and chemistry. Not that anyone is going to get excited about handbags make from vinyl, leatherette or PU leather.
MLM (Score:3)
This is blatantly cruel to mushrooms.
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Next we'll be eating mushrooms with steak sauce. The world has gone mad.
How mushroom... (Score:2)
... is there in that handbag?
Dollar signs in the eyes (Score:2)
This type of price-elevating marketing mumbo-jumbo does not make me feel positive about changing the game for us poor shmucks that can't afford the premium that world-saving seems to be asking for.
Cool (Score:2)
Allergens? (Score:2)
It will be interesting to see if this is more allergenic than leather. A lot of people have allergies to various fungi, and this material may have some of the molecular targets for those antibodies.
(It will certainly be DIFFERENTLY allergenic.)