My wife was looking for a new leather purse at Sam Moon, but all of the ones that she liked were marked as “Vegan Leather”. She was smart enough to pass on all of them. To me “Vegan Leather” is like “Tofu Bacon”, an oxymoron created by some marketing moron.
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I get the sneaking suspicion that if subjected to close scrutiny, vegan leather would prove to be neither.
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I am gathering from the conversation that there’s more to being a Vegan than I thought. I just always assumed Vegans were the way they were out of spite because they really hated plants?
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I think I saw once a documentary on how plants scream when there are being yanked up by their roots. It was horrific.
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I understand omnivores and vegetarians (in all their many “flavors”.) Vegans for me are radial vegetarians who wants EVERYONE else to do as they do.
I support anyone living whatever food choices they want. I do not support people who condemn me for eating the food I choose to eat.
Run away, Nick. I think it is interesting your customer “accidentally” touched leather. I wonder if she had to have a cleansing ritual?
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There were crystals on the table in the video call.
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This is sort of off topic, but I would like to add some facts on raising animals for meat
for the most part, subsidies were ended several years ago Farmers can buy Federal backed crop insurance in case of crop loss, like many South Texas cotton farmer had this year due to flooding from Harvey. Most of the corn that ends up in anila feed, was used first to produce either ethanol or HFCS, A high protein product results that id better for the animals than the straight corn would have been the soybeans are first used for oil, Soybean oil is not only used id cooking but also for inks and as replacement for rock oil,
Catt;e spend most of their life on range land and only a few month in a feedlot They are not abuded there, a stressed animal will not grow well/ They are not abused in t the slaughterer process either… Modern slaughterhouses keep the animals qiet and calm until they are stunned and killed If an animal gets upset or frightened, they will release aderalin which will lower the quality of the meat
This is graphic, but I felt a lot better about eating meat after I watched them
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My mom went vegan, however this had bad consequences. She ended up being 86lbs. However she has food allergies that she cant eat the normal alternates.
MMMM Beef… lol
I have a friend who wont eat what she calls a “domesticated cow”, it really is just a cow that she named or is named. I don’t care myself, I’ll eat Elsie.
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Having dealt with various named cows so will I.
At least once a week our bull (Ferdinand) would escape. He liked getting out in the mornings. Instead of attending school, as I should have been, I would be chasing the rascal home. He was tasty.
Over the summer our bull (Booter) was constantly picking fights with a range bull. At times it was entertaining: He spent about ten minutes putting on war paint (rubbing his face in the mud), popped up, snorted, then stormed the fence. Seeing my rather tiny wife, armed with a shotgun and a stick, trying to separate two one ton animals sealed his fate. He was tasty.
My wife had a cow who could perform a flawless standing long jump over a cattle guard. I had to chase that cow home so many times. She was tasty.
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Some of the farm folks talk about sending troublesome animals to the freexer camp
Cows kill more folks than sharks do
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To be fair, more people go looking for trouble with bovines than go looking for trouble with (that class of) piscines…
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“genuine leather” is the plywood of the leather industry. It is made up of layers of thin leather (often the scraps “skived” off of thicker leather pieces when smoothing out the hide’s thickness). These scraps and layers are then bonded together and then painted to look like a smooth leather finish.
Genuine leather is the lowest grade of leather which can still be called “leather.”
“Vegan leather” is a term I was not familiar with until this post, but it appears to be faux leather made of various materials from cork, to kelp, to PVC, Vinyl, or polyurethane. I imagine Naugahyde fits that category.
Vegan Leather is promoted by PETA as a leather substitute.
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What they want is pleather. The irony is most of the nicer looking and feeling pleather options (which is what they are probably going to settle on) are a hybrid between leather and pvc, sort of like the hot dog of the leather world.
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My grandparents got 2 calves and raised them. We attempted to pet them. They were tasty.
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Here is a surprisingly detailed article looking at leather vs the polyurethane substitute:
Of note:
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- PU generally kinder to animals
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- Leather generally kinder to the environment i.e. future world
@carpa Good point about the error is copying leather to begin with if one wants to change a culture. As you say, synthetics offer some amazing alternatives.
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It’s not a failing to understand “leather” to mean “skin or hide of some kind of animal,” in my humble opinion. 
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I have a friend who wont eat what she calls a “domesticated cow”, it really is just a cow that she named or is named. I don’t care myself, I’ll eat Elsie.
And on the opposite end of the spectrum - I had a professor (of conservation biology no less) who grew up on a ranch and refused to eat animals he hadn’t raised and didn’t “know.”
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Vegan leather is absolutely a “thing”. I have worn vegan Dr. Martens daily for over 7 years. They are the best boots I have ever worn, and are in fact still in great shape except I have nearly 0 tread left on the soles. I am debating re-soling them or just buying a second pair.
And as far as “vegans should stop …” the definition of veganism is …
“Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.”
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Vegans should stop trying to redefine language. “Vegan” leather isn’t leather. “Vegan” burgers are not burgers. “Vegan” butter isn’t butter. “Vegan” ice cream most certainly isn’t ice cream.
If you don’t want to eat meat or animal products, that is great… for you. Don’t go trying to change language to suit your world view, it will only make non-vegans snicker.
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You don’t have to tell me, I’m $12K lighter do to the “thing.”
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