America’s obsession with beef is killing leather
U.S. consumers are eating more beef, more than they have in a decade. But a byproduct of this carnivorous hankering is piling up, unloved and unwanted. Shoppers who once coveted leather jackets and shoes are instead scooping up cheaper, synthetic alternatives, reflecting a growing ambivalence toward this former staple of American closets.
The glut of cowhides has caused prices to plummet, rendering many worthless. And just as the American love for meat has caught on around the globe, so too has the abandonment of leather, from clothing to car seats. Hides are even starting to go to landfills while the smaller leather processors are going out of business.
Just five years ago, prices soared after a drought shrank the U.S. herd to a six-decade low. Leather outpriced itself, forcing shoe and clothing designers to cut the material from their products. Combine that with the rise of athleisure and the growing popularity of “vegan” clothing, and one can see why demand hasn’t come back.
Cattle hides, an obligatory byproduct of beef and dairy consumption, will be around as long as Americans like cheeseburgers, steaks and ice cream. And while dairy producers have been under pressure from declining milk demand and dairy alternatives, the rise of meat substitutes has yet to dent America’s taste for the real thing.
With piles of 100-pound cowhides accumulating all over the country, unused and unsold, leather makers are warning of a looming commercial disaster. Hides have often accounted for 50 percent of the value of the animal’s byproducts, and byproducts can be 10 percent of a steer’s value or more. Hides from cows, which are lower quality than those of steers, have fallen to only about 5 percent of the value of all byproducts — worth less than tongues and cheek meat. It’s not even 1 percent of the value of a live cow.
“There are hides with no value,” said Joe Brannan, manager of export sales at Twin City Hide, a processor based in South St. Paul, Minn. “We’re throwing a natural product in the garbage.”
There’s still plenty of demand for high-quality leather, but that’s just one part of the industry. Most animals don’t have perfect hides, and many are branded. Older animals that have weathered the elements on pastures for years have skin marred by imperfections.
Twin City Hide has had to stop taking lower-quality hides from smaller beef companies, since the cost of processing them is more than it can recoup. In the first five months of this year, the company saw a 27 percent drop in production, with 20 percent of its current inventory sitting in warehouses.
“There’s no one bidding, no one trying to buy them,” said Brannan, who has worked in the hide business since 1976.
According to Hidenet, a leather markets research firm, a hide from a branded cow went for as little as $4 the week of July 15, down from as much as $81 just five years ago. Vera Dordick, CEO and publisher of Hidenet, added that it’s not just the U.S. industry that’s suffering.
“It’s a worldwide crisis,” Dordick said. “Some people used to say, ‘We haven’t buried any hides yet.’ Now they can’t say that.”
Before the bottom fell out, imperfect hides could be turned into small leather goods, such as cheap handbags. A finishing treatment, such as a print, a coat of polyurethane or buffing the hide into suede, could smooth over rough spots, said Stephen Sothmann, president of the Washington-based U.S. Hide, Skin and Leather Association, an industry lobbying group.
But thanks in part to synthetic fabrics, that’s no longer the case. So-called fast-fashion and athleisure now dominate American retail. And for those who still favor the look of leather, imitations have gotten more sophisticated and can breathe like the real thing, said John Hochstein, vice president of hide and leather sales for National Beef Packing Co., one of the four major U.S. meatpackers.
Many synthetic leathers are made of petrochemicals, which raises an environmental dilemma for some consumers. So now, shoppers are flocking to eco-friendly faux-leathers made from fruit peels and recycled fabrics.
As long as it doesn’t contain leather or other animal products, it can be described as vegan. Such clothing, accessories and footwear saw a 54 percent increase at U.S. retail stores in the first half of 2019, said Helen Palmer, director of materials at trend forecaster WGSN. Shoes saw the biggest gains, while the decline of leather footwear has been pronounced.
Vegan clothing aside, the choice between buying fossil fuel-based yoga pants or the skin of mammals raises another question: Which is worse for the environment?
Huantian Cao, a professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware, said both have drawbacks. Petrochemical-based synthetics have the same sustainability problems as plastic, and they may even be worse. Every time you wash those stretchy pants, plastic microbeads and microfibers flow down the drain, into rivers and oceans.
While leather is a natural material, it’s derived from cattle farming. That industry generates methane emissions from cows and waste-filled runoff. Most U.S. hides, meanwhile, are exported to countries with less strict environmental regulations, where they’re tanned with harsh chemicals including chromium sulphate.
Even worse, this process uses a lot of water, Cao said. There’s ongoing research to try to find more eco-friendly tanning methods, such as using plant extracts and enzymes. But currently, he said, the chemical creates a better product.