Home » Vegan Leather Might Not Be What You Think It Is: COTD

Vegan Leather Might Not Be What You Think It Is: COTD

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Something that I love about each comment section at the Autopian is that you are bound to learn something new, and maybe, you’ll have a laugh, too. That is thanks to our wonderful cast of readers, and the comments of today delivered. Did you know that an Oldsmobile makes for a great starting point for puns? Did you know that so-called vegan leather is sometimes made from plants?

We wrote about the 2026 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, and V10omous has a valid complaint:

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

There’s no vegan leather to be found

This is a phrase that should never have existed, but at minimum should never be uttered or printed again.

Just call it vinyl, because it’s vinyl.

I’ve long found the marketing of modern non-leather, leather-like materials to be fascinating, because it seems automakers have cooked up interesting names for these seating surfaces. However, Cerberus makes a great point:

Plant-based textiles exist.

Which is pretty neat! Who is right? Technically both! Tesla’s standard vegan leather is a polyurethane-based, fully synthetic material. However, you can also retrofit your Tesla with BanbÅ«. It’s an organic material that is 83 percent plant fibers, primarily the fibers of bamboo.

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Mark wrote a Shitbox Showdown featuring a 1992 Oldsmobile 88 and a 1998 Honda Accord. KYFire nails the first COTD slot:

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There might not be much of a Delta between the two but I’m Eighty Eight percent sure I’d take the Olds over the Honda on Accord of the rust.

Perfection. Jason published a rant about how all cars should be able to just tell you a problem code. Rad Barchetta:

I got a check engine light once. So I opened the hood and checked. It was still there.

Michael Beranek:

Jason, Jason, Jason. Your heart is in the right place, and it’s so pure that you might not be able to see how absolutely, totally, completely Communist this idea is. You’re taking money directly from the shareholder’s hands. This will not be tolerated in 2025 America.

Have a great evening, everyone!

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EricTheViking
EricTheViking
2 months ago

I’ve long found the marketing of modern non-leather, leather-like materials to be fascinating, because it seems automakers have cooked up interesting names for these seating surfaces.

Don’t forget Mercedes-Benz MB-Tex! They’re virtually indestructible…

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
2 months ago

My favorite part about “vegan leather”? So much of it is made from petroleum. Fossil fuels. Dead dinosaurs.

“Just stop oil”? Not until you discard most of your clothes, your eyeglasses, your cell phone, nearly all of the interior appointments in the public transportation you take instead of driving an evil automobile…

Sofonda Wagons
Member
Sofonda Wagons
3 months ago

vegan leather is just a marketing word for heavy duty vinyl. Us old shits like me seen through the rouse right away.

05LGT
Member
05LGT
3 months ago

I just figured it was a fitting and useful end for a vegan.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
2 months ago
Reply to  05LGT

Akshwally, it is. Most “vegan leather” is made of vegans, strictly speaking: petroleum, as in “dead dinosaurs.”

Alpscarver
Member
Alpscarver
3 months ago

Rich Corinthian Vegan Leather

Porschebago
Porschebago
3 months ago

“Vegan Leather” sounds like a name for a terrible metal band. Perhaps if we alter the spelling and add an unnecessary umlaut?

“Vegan Lethür”

No, that’s no better.

Ben
Member
Ben
3 months ago

However, you can also retrofit your Tesla with Banbū.

Tell me more about 3d printing a new interior for a Tesla. 😉

Todd Woodward
Todd Woodward
3 months ago

I prefer leather. It’s a byproduct of cattle production, so as long as I’m eating beef, I want to see the rest of the animal put to use, and save the petroleum for gas and oil instead of pleather.

Sofonda Wagons
Member
Sofonda Wagons
3 months ago
Reply to  Todd Woodward

Amen, Todd, Amen. And please do the whole hide and not bind a thin layer of it to a polyester backing and call it bonded. UUUUUUGHHHH.

Todd Woodward
Todd Woodward
2 months ago
Reply to  Sofonda Wagons

Exactly this. I’ve had leather couches last thirty years and bonded leather disintegrate in three years.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
3 months ago

The common way bamboo fibres are processed in order to make them pliable for fabric, is to vulcanize them. This essentially converts them to rayon or polyester. Same stuff that’s made from petroleum. So while the source may be ‘greener’, ultimately more plastic is created and potentially improperly disposed of at the end of it’s life. I would not categorize bamboo based fabrics as natural fibres any more than I would consider bio fuels as clean energy.

Nycbjr
Member
Nycbjr
3 months ago

I agree vegan leather is a silly term, but I feel like they’ve made huge strides in quality of the vinyl materials. Our 2023 Niro has vegan leather, and it feel like leather, softer, has the perforation’s for cooled seats, and feels more premium. I remember 70’s nagahide and it was cheap, thin, and yes stuck to you in the summer, our car has none of these qualities!

Akio
Akio
3 months ago

Counterpoint: What if vegan leather is just leather made out of vegans? Since they don’t specify I think we have to assume this is true.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago
Reply to  Akio

This was always my take on the stuff. Seems like a good use for vegans, they are always so annoying about it.

Sofonda Wagons
Member
Sofonda Wagons
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

wow, with the national guard called in at certain cities, vegan leather just found a windfall of production.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
2 months ago
Reply to  Sofonda Wagons

Do you really think it’s vegans out there in public causing a ruckus that the National Guard could do something about? Nah – they are too busy annoying their friends and making server’s lives difficult with their dietary proclamations to protest anything of substance.

Highland Green Miata
Member
Highland Green Miata
3 months ago

Oil originally started as plants, so…

Jsloden
Jsloden
3 months ago

There was an older land cruiser on BAT a few months ago. The selling dealer was bragging that the seats had been recovered using the finest vegan leather. When people started pointing out that he basically took the original actual leather covers off and replaced them with vinyl the seller lost it. The vehicle didn’t meet reserve needless to day.

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago

> Plant-based textiles exist.

Uh…cotton is a plant. Plant-based textiles aren’t so exotic they need to be pointed out like that. 😛

Twobox Designgineer
Twobox Designgineer
3 months ago

if this misspelled ‘bambu’ stuff is the same as what is also marketed as Tencel(tm), then it is indeed a bamboo fiber based…textile. Thread. Cloth. Which would not make it a substitute-alike for leather, pleather, vinyl, PU, naugahyde (the poor naugas!) or ‘vegan leather’ because it is cloth seats in a luxury car. Call it what it is.

For the record, I prefer cloth seats for comfort, but prefer leather or leather-alike for not getting dirty. I’m not aware of anything that gives the full benefits of both. Maybe ventilated leather seats, but I haven’t had a car with those.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago

Back in the day, the finest luxury cars ALWAYS had fine cloth seats for the rich folk riding in the back. The help driving up front sat on leather. Sometimes without a roof, so they knew their place.

I would pick good cloth over leather or vinyl every time if I had a choice, but in the US you almost never get that choice. Really ground my gears that in Europe an M235i got a fantastic grippy cloth interior as standard, but no soup for you in the US, sticky sweaty vinyl or leather only.

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

It’s fine Corinthian cloth or nothing for me.

Ash78
Ash78
3 months ago

Yeah, but we had that big war over it, then a lot of it moved to Central America and Egypt, so we don’t like to talk about it.

I keep waiting for the industry to change their slogan to:

It’s a bold move: Cotton

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
3 months ago

I made my points about vinyl/leather a few minutes ago, but you only have to go back to yesterday’s SBSD to find a couple of cloth interiors that are likely more comfortable than either.

1992 Olds 88 vs 1998 Honda Accord: Which Twin Cities Beater Would You Trust? – The Autopian

Maybe try to find west coast, southern desert examples instead of ones from the literal rust belt.

SlowCarFast
Member
SlowCarFast
3 months ago

I bought a used Chevy Malibu with “leather” seating at one point. It says so in the materials. It was thick, shiny, vinyl. I hated the stuff!

But they could still legally call it “leather”, for some reason.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago
Reply to  SlowCarFast

Cheap leather is basically plastic coated such that it might as well be vinyl.

Secret Chimp
Member
Secret Chimp
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

Virtually all leather in vehicles these days is bonded leather which is coated in polyurethane.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago
Reply to  Secret Chimp

Exactly.

Shinynugget
Shinynugget
3 months ago

Whenever someone is proud to point out they got Vegan leather I always ask how they like their crude oil accessory. Admittedly, Vegan leather might be the best marketing term ever to change the perception of a product.

Ash78
Ash78
3 months ago
Reply to  Shinynugget

Ever time I see “vegan leather” I immediately think “people were eating leather?!”

I think they should just stick with their proprietary names for each brand, that’s fine with me.

Vegan and Plant-based are on EVERYTHING and it’s starting to wear me out. Like a buy a jar of peanuts and it’s like “12g of plant-based protein” as if I didn’t know what peanuts were. Mouse testicles or something?

Spikersaurusrex
Member
Spikersaurusrex
3 months ago
Reply to  Ash78

I think it’s funny when I buy microwave popcorn and it says on the box that it’s “whole grain”. It wouldn’t pop if it were ground up, would it?

PlugInPA
Member
PlugInPA
3 months ago

That’s not what whole grain means. White rice isn’t whole grain even though it’s not ground, because the hull is removed. So you get less fiber, etc.

Pilotgrrl
Member
Pilotgrrl
3 months ago

I feel the same way about gluten free. Gluten free popcorn, gluten free water…

Ash78
Ash78
2 months ago
Reply to  Pilotgrrl

I saw “fat-free” listed on beer once. Sheesh.

I like to convert my beer to fat the old-fashioned way!

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago

Honestly my favourite is on bags of almonds:

Warning: contains nuts.

I SURE HOPE IT DOES

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
3 months ago

Geez. Start skipping reading articles about Teslas (there’s only so much one can take of reading about the products of a company run by a fash Nazi apartheid boy, especially with the CT) and one misses out on some discussions.
Yeah, the term “vegan leather” is silly but it was coined in an effort to get around the stigma of vinyl in light of how countless shorts-clad Boomers grew up burning the backs of their legs when getting into cars with vinyl upholstery in the summertime.
Indeed, that’s why they came up with terms like “Naughahyde” and the venerable and venerated “MB-Tex” and so on.
“Synthetic leather” would be fine since it’s analogous to saying “synthetic fiber” but people still have hang-ups about things synthetic, probably in part borne of coming of age during the disco era which was positively rife with polyester (that is, “synthetic fiber”) clothes, lol.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
3 months ago

So many hot legs experiences in my vinyl-seated Datsun 510 in high school. Putting sheep skin covers on the front seats of my Peugeot 504 I replaced it with out of college may have been one of the smartest things I ever did. They didn’t breathe in the summer heat, but they didn’t scald, absorbed the sweat and were wonderful to sit into in the winter. I should see if I can get a set for my Honda, which has leather, but not Bentley luxurious leather.

When I had a young kid, I appreciated how easy it was to clean a leather seat. But cloth is so much more comfortable. Leather came with the trim level I wanted mechanically with the Honda.

I had a friend whose wife was vegan, and he had to special order an Audi to not have leather seats. They divorced. I don’t know why.

The cows are going to die anyway. Because we eat them. But I’d be fine with a durable, but not plasticky, cloth seat material. I don’t eat in my car, and I think it would be more comfortable.

Aracan
Aracan
3 months ago

As far as I can make out, the main difference between vegans and non-vegans is the size of the animals whose death in connection with their diet they find acceptable.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
3 months ago
Reply to  Aracan

It feels to me like an ersatz morality arm-wrestling contest. I couldn’t care less.

I like to eat fish, chickens and four-legged animals. All in moderation.

I like salads, but I probably don’t eat enough vegetables, and I don’t like fruit.

I’m past retirement age and surprised I made it this far, given the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen and done. I’m ok with that.

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago

It’s not always entirely about ethics. I don’t eat anything I could have a conversation with, which includes all animals, but in large part because I think the smell, flavour, and texture of fish and meat are vomit-inducing.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
2 months ago

I’m quite not there yet, but I may be soon. But once a year, a good steak makes me happy. Poultry, once a month or two. Seafood… depends on how their species population is going. I do like scallops. If they are done right.

I don’t like fruit. But I love veggies.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
2 months ago

Hmmm. Username doesn’t fit. Lol

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
2 months ago

Hahaha that’s true. I tweak my username to always make a dubious pun (Harvey park = RV park, Harvey’s smokehouse brisket = Arby’s smokehouse brisket, etc) with the end changing based on whimsy. I guess I need to change it again.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
2 months ago

Don’t do it on my account. You’re fine.

Oh. I guess you already did! No reference to brisket anymore.

I’ll just leave you with this little earworm:

The Bollock Brothers – Harley David (Son of a Bitch)

You’re welcome. 🙂

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
2 months ago

Very nice!

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago

I replaced the shredded vinyl seats in my 504D sedan with the cloth velour sport seats out of a 505. Fabulous!

It pisses me off to no end that you can’t get proper cloth seats in decent cars today, or for many years. The cloth found in cheap cars today is inevitably that recycled soda bottle crap and feels terrible. Where are the nice tweeds and velours of old? Base Saabs and Volvos were nearly the last holdouts, though I guess Volvo does (or did until recently) offer cloth in some models (but no idea how nice it actually is). A friend was able to special order a very early e90 325i with cloth, but it’s the only one I have ever seen on this side of the pond. I got a flat NO when I tried to do the same with my M235i order. I would have paid more for the cloth seats they got as standard in the Old Countries.

This would have been fantastic!

https://www.2addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=971586

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

Oh. You just dusted off some old memory cells. I knew someone with a 505. The seats may have well been cloth. I do remember it was a comfy ride. The time I rode in it. Shame that it came over here when sealed beam headlights were still mandatory. The European 505s looked so much cooler with their halogen headlight sculptures. The front of USA versions were hideous in comparison. Sigh.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
2 months ago

I got the Euro lights for my SW8. They were some of the BEST halogen headlights ever fitted to a car. Seen here at a Peugeot Club meet at the French Embassy in DC back in the day:

https://flic.kr/p/pbKiH3

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
2 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

What a lovely car! A Peugeot Club meet up at the French Embassy. How cool.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
2 months ago

It was a lot of fun. I took my grandfather with me, then did a work stop for a couple days in NJ on the way back to Maine. He got a kick out of seeing what I did for a living (installed POS systems in hardware stores in those days).

I truly miss my Peugeots. They were my first automotive love affair. And astounding bargains back in the day. I paid $3500 for that car in 1998 with 80K miles on it from the original owner. An equivalent Volvo wagon was $10K+ at the time. And it was very special – it was both the VERY LAST 505 SW8 imported to the US, and the only one sold with a 5spd manual transmission. Literally snuck in on the last boat by a very long time serial Peugeot owner. But he had to stop driving, so he sold it.

Dummy me sold it to buy my first Saab. Automotive ADHD is real. At the time I still had my even nicer ’79 504D though.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
2 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

Wow. That sounds like an automotive unicorn. I’m envious of your experience.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
2 months ago

LOL – I have managed a few stickshift unicorns, though it was probably the “unicorniest”.

My BMW wagon is one – one of only 426 sold in the US in RWD/manual form, and my 5spd LR Disco is only slightly more common at about 550. Even my Spitfire is rare in being a factory overdrive car. VERY few of those sold new in the US, that O/D unit was like 20% of the base price of the car.

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
2 months ago

The Euro 505 was one of the handsomest designs in Peugeot’s existence.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
2 months ago

Very much agreed.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
2 months ago

Definitely a step or two above the 504. I’m sad I never owned one. But the 504 was a sturdy beast in its own way. The trunk on the sedans was an odd decision. The 505 was certainly more stylish.

If Peugeot was still selling cars in the US in 2017, I might be driving one of those instead of my Accord.

Last edited 2 months ago by Cars? I've owned a few
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

504D sedan! What a ride. My grandmother had a white one. That was her only quality.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
2 months ago

Your grandmother was a woman of refined taste. 🙂

Younork
Younork
3 months ago

I’m just going to take a moment to yell at the clouds. Most leather interiors, and all vinyl interiors are simply inferior to any decent quality fabric. Leather and vinyl is cold in the winter, sticky in the summer, and doesn’t breathe like fabric does. Furthermore, automakers position vinyl like it’s an aspirational feature. All it does is make me ignore the upper trims because I want fabric. Take the Sienna, or any other Toyota, for example, the base LE has nice fabric seats, whereas the XLE is all trimmed with “SofTex.” Which as far as I can tell is just well-marketed vinyl. I like some of the XLE features and paint options, but I’ll never consider a higher trim because I don’t want to stick to the seat all summer long.

Taargus Taargus
Member
Taargus Taargus
3 months ago
Reply to  Younork

I mostly agree, though I find a lot of the fabrics that manufacturers use in their base models to suck. Often it’s a reasonably hard wearing (good) but miserably scratchy, sad looking stuff that doesn’t result in a whole lot of comfort. The cloth seats I had in multiple 90’s cars were far more comfortable than most of the fabrics I’ve experienced lately. It’s like it was designed to get people to upgrade to leather (probably because it is).

Bring back nice quality, soft, comfortable fabrics.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
3 months ago
Reply to  Younork

Until all your kids are mature enough to not spill (or worse, vomit) crap in the interior, vinyl or leather is a better choice than cloth. Feel free to ask me how I know.

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago

Having children is mistake #1 there. Though I have had friends who acted like children in the car, so I certainly feel your pain.

Cars? I've owned a few
Member
Cars? I've owned a few
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

I have one offspring, who is now 31 and making more $ than I ever did and I love him dearly. So, not a mistake. Fully intended. Fully launched.

But, three-year-old him did barf in the back seat of a rental car and we Fabreezed the heck out of it before turning it back in.

I have a picture, somewhere, of a decal on the inside rear windows of a taxi depicting a stick figure vomiting and an equal sign and $150. I didn’t smell anything so it must have worked.

I covered Superbowl 20 in NOLA and will never be able to unsee some guy leaning out of a chartreuse taxi, hurling a vividly pink Hurricane or two or three over the port side at 2 am. Perfect color contrast.

Hoser68
Hoser68
3 months ago

Interestingly, Henry Ford was sort of a pioneer of this. Dude was obsessed with soy beans. The Model T took 60 lbs of soybeans to make, with most of the plastic parts being out of soy beans. He had soybean foam in the car seats. His personal car had plastic body panels made out of soy beans (there’s a picture of him hitting the trunk lid with an axe to prove how tough the material was. Ford even had a suit made out of soybean fabric.

Protodite
Protodite
3 months ago
Reply to  Hoser68

To continue the odd trend, he was also once the guest of honor at a 12 course all-carrot dinner

Jay Vette
Member
Jay Vette
3 months ago
Reply to  Hoser68

Pretty sure the Model T didn’t have any plastic parts at all, since it was manufactured before most plastics became widespread. Later cars probably used soybean plastic, but I’m pretty sure the Model T wasn’t one of them.

Hoser68
Hoser68
3 months ago
Reply to  Jay Vette

The 60lbs come from Ford.Ford Has A Long And Interesting History With Soybeans

The paint and most of the molded plastic bits like the horn button and accelerator pedal were made out of Soy Beans. I think the distributor was also soy based.

I wonder if the focus on black paint was due to a limitation with it being based on soy beans for the time.

Jay Vette
Member
Jay Vette
2 months ago
Reply to  Hoser68

I did some further research, and that quote from Ford Authority isn’t correct. While Ford did become very interested in soybeans and the possibilities soy material could have in cars, it wasn’t until after the Model T was produced that he used soy products in his cars. I know for sure that no Model Ts ever had a soy-based accelerator pedal or distributor, because Model Ts were never manufactured with those parts—the throttle (which you could call an accelerator) was a metal lever on the steering column, and they used trembler coils and magnetos for electrical generation, never a distributor. The black paint used on Model Ts was a formulation called Japan black and at least when the Model T was being produced, it had no soy ingredients: https://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/P-R.htm
Later Model Ts did have some plastic-like parts used in them, mostly for coil boxes and steering wheel rims, but those were made of a material called Fordite, which was mostly composed of compressed straw and other non-soy ingredients: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=97420&mode=view

Racer Esq.
Racer Esq.
3 months ago

It’s not made out of vegans? False advertising.

Technically petrochemical based vinyl is plant based, but with an aging process.

I prefer vinyl to most mainstream leather and it holds up better. It was the most reliable thing about a 318i I had.

Dylan
Member
Dylan
3 months ago
Reply to  Racer Esq.

If vegan leather were actually made of vegans it would by definition no longer be vegan…

Hoser68
Hoser68
3 months ago
Reply to  Dylan

Or, alternatively, you could claim that regular cow leather is vegan leather.

Secret Chimp
Member
Secret Chimp
3 months ago
Reply to  Hoser68

The cows that the leather is made from, they only eat plants. Does that count as vegan leather?

Hoser68
Hoser68
3 months ago
Reply to  Secret Chimp

I would argue it would be more ethical than making leather out from beings that were able to describe themselves as Vegan.

Zeppelopod
Zeppelopod
3 months ago
Reply to  Racer Esq.

Nine minutes ahead of me, well played! Like Wednesday Addams vs. the girl scout cookies.

Ricardo M
Member
Ricardo M
3 months ago
Reply to  Racer Esq.

My seats, boots, belt and steering wheel are all vegan leather, if you ignore any bugs that may have been accidentally eaten by the vegans in question while they were grazing.

Rad Barchetta
Member
Rad Barchetta
3 months ago

Thanks, Mercedes!

It’s an organic material that is 83 percent plant fibers, primarily the fibers of bamboo.

Real leather is organic, too. Just sayin’…

Alexk98
Member
Alexk98
3 months ago
Reply to  Rad Barchetta

Funniest part is those bamboo based interiors are 30 THOUSAND DOLLARS. 30k. “But they’re biodegradable” ok, so you threw out a perfectly fine interior to put another one in, that just seems like extra pollution for no net benefit. Tesla people are definitely special.

Ricardo M
Member
Ricardo M
3 months ago
Reply to  Alexk98

Reduce and Reuse are both anti-consumption, so we as a society only accept one R.

Hugh Crawford
Member
Hugh Crawford
3 months ago

Cows are vegans , right?

Huja Shaw
Huja Shaw
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Calves are not because they consume milk.

Rad Barchetta
Member
Rad Barchetta
3 months ago
Reply to  Huja Shaw

They’re veal-gans.

Andy Farrell
Member
Andy Farrell
3 months ago
Reply to  Rad Barchetta

Technically, that makes then vegetarians. I think.

Zeppelopod
Zeppelopod
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Horrifyingly enough, many ruminants will consume meat if given the opportunity. Deer will gratefully feed from corpses and chew bones if low on calcium.

Cows? I won’t link it but if you’re not faint of heart there’s a video out there of a cow lazily vacuuming up baby chicks.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Oh, yeah, not necessarily strictly speaking, as cows are herbivorous and just generally don’t deliberately eat things not plant-based but livestock cows will sometimes eat bugs and small animals that happen to be in the livestock feed they’re eating… Heck, part of the reason that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease, and other prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease exist at all is because livestock farmers would cut corners by grinding up leftover animal parts and the cadavers of sick cows that died before going to the slaughterhouse and adding that to the feed given to the living cows.
But, yeah, I couldn’t tell you how many boomers made the exact same joke about cows being vegetarians whenever they encountered vegetarians/vegans at family gatherings and other functions wherever food was served. Went vegan in the early 1990s after having been vegetarian on and off for a good decade before that so I’ve seen it all with the jokes and other forms of disparagment over the past 40-plus years. Yeah, nothing new under the sun, lol.

Hugh Crawford
Member
Hugh Crawford
3 months ago

You are absolutely right about the insects. when you feel silage to dairy caws, it is basically corn that has been harvested by grinding up the entire corn plant and putting it into an anaerobic silo. All of the insects that get mashed up in the process contribute their digestive enzymes to breaking down the corn so that it has more nutrient value. It also becomes somewhat alcoholic, which incidentally the cows really like.

Last edited 3 months ago by Hugh Crawford
Pilotgrrl
Member
Pilotgrrl
3 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Except for the time when farmers in the UK used cattle feed that contained other ground up cows, leading to some people getting Creutzfeld-Jacobs disease AKA mad cow disease.

Hugh Crawford
Member
Hugh Crawford
3 months ago
Reply to  Pilotgrrl

Yeah, I grew up on a dairy farm farm that sort of happened because my grandparents bought a Gurnsey cow in the depression as a pet, one thing led to another, and they had 700 cows. We would have school kids touring through all the time and visitors from Japan and Australia. My grandmother the architect designed barns inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. Probably the only terracotta and glass brick milking barn anywhere.

Later on I found out how awful normal dairy farms are, so I have really mixed feelings about the whole thing.

Somewhere I have photos of the time my grandfather got a gurnsey cow and the dairy queen ( a young woman, not the fast food chain of that name ) on a San Francisco cable car., not normal dairy farmer behavior.

4jim
4jim
3 months ago

Naugahyde!

Andy Farrell
Member
Andy Farrell
3 months ago
Reply to  4jim

What about the poor Naugas, though? /s

Kevin Rhodes
Member
Kevin Rhodes
3 months ago
Reply to  Andy Farrell

Hunted to extinction, evidently. When was the last time you say one, anything new made with their hides?

Pilotgrrl
Member
Pilotgrrl
3 months ago
Reply to  Kevin Rhodes

They still make toy Naugas.

Hugh Crawford
Member
Hugh Crawford
2 months ago
Reply to  Andy Farrell

My father in law invented the Nauga as well as the Quisp and Quake characters working at Papert Koenig Lois
I once referred to him as the father of the nauga, and got quite the side eye from my wife.

Dylan
Member
Dylan
3 months ago
Reply to  4jim

Veganhyde?

Doughnaut
Member
Doughnaut
3 months ago

What’s weird is that it seems like everyone forgot that cotton, hemp, and linen are super common plant based textiles. Why can’t those be woven in a way that creates a comfortable and hard wearing seat fabric.

In a perfect world, I want wool. But that’s not vegan.

Eggsalad
Eggsalad
3 months ago
Reply to  Doughnaut

People are free to define “vegan” however they want for themselves. But I think most vegans would be okay with wool, because it’s not harmful or exploitive to the sheep.

MaximillianMeen
Member
MaximillianMeen
3 months ago
Reply to  Eggsalad

If they are against milking cows and collecting unfertilized eggs from hens, then I would assume they are against raising sheep in captivity to be forcibly buzz cut every month or so.

Goose
Member
Goose
3 months ago

Uh, I am a big dairy consumer, love eggs, don’t think a meal is really a meal without meat, etc; but lets be real here, vegans have some very legitimate points against those practices.

Milk production and mass market egg production does have very legitimate issues and is way way way different than wool production. For cows to produce milk, they have to be impregnated and then separated from their calves about every year. They also spend most of their life stuck indoors, in a high stress environment, standing in their own filth, packed in with too many other dairy cows, with little stimulation, eating food they wouldn’t naturally eat. Modern practice to milk them is to attract them to the automatic milking machine with the “good” food, as that is the only 2 highlights of their day. Sure, cows are dumb, but let’s not act like it’s enjoyable or something they would even choose to do on their own.

Chickens end up cramped together and just get juiced for continual eggs until they die. Again, typically very little space or stimulation. They often spend their entire life stuck in a teeny cage so they don’t fight one another in their high stress, shitty environment.

Yeah, there are better, more expensive, more humane alternative ways to produce milk/eggs, but the vast majority of people refuse to pay for it.

Sheep for wool production at least typically get to live outside grazing in a more natural environment as standard. I get it, all these animals are are highly domesticated and can’t really live on their own in the natural world, but the vast majority of cows, chicken, pigs, etc live pretty shitty lives all for our consumption. Wool producing sheep just happen to be one of the few domesticated farmed animals that happen to more regularly fall on the “better” end of the spectrum that is still probably pretty dang horrible for a bunch of reasons I am unfamiliar with.

Last edited 3 months ago by Goose
MaximillianMeen
Member
MaximillianMeen
3 months ago
Reply to  Goose

I fully understand the inhumane aspects of factory farming. However, I think wool is mass produced using similar methods that are not as pastoral as one might envision. See Collegiate Autodidact’s comments below.

Goose
Member
Goose
3 months ago

Sorry, I read your original comment as if you were questioning why someone would be against those things.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
3 months ago
Reply to  Eggsalad

Oh, many vegans tend to eschew wool due to the fact that wool production is all too often simply not humane. Factory wool production is indeed harmful and exploitative to the sheep. Also, sheep who have reached the end of their usable wool-producing are usually slaughtered so a lot of vegans (like me!) just prefer not to participate in supporting such an industry.
There does exist ethically and humanely produced wool that some vegans will wear but it’s miniscule compared to the rest of wool production. Easier and cheaper to forego any wool and go with alternatives…

Last edited 3 months ago by Collegiate Autodidact
Doughnaut
Member
Doughnaut
3 months ago

Plus, aren’t sheep used for modern wool production, some sort of selectively bred breed that produces such a thick and heavy coat, that without human intervention they’d suffer and die?

I’m not a vegan, but as an outsider looking in, I can’t imagine many–if any–vegans considering wool to be vegan.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
3 months ago
Reply to  Doughnaut

Yeah, all the more reason why many vegans (like me!) don’t wear wool so as not to support an industry that engages in inherently harmful practices such as breeding sheep that would simply suffer and die if left alone.
Yeah, wool ain’t vegan, that’s for sure! Though some vegans who do a lot of camping and bicycling in especially cold climates (or even just live there) will sometimes wear wool, ideally ethically and humanely produced, since common alternatives are leather and fur which are pretty much a no-go, lol. Wool is one of only a few clothing materials that retain their insulation value when wet, a boon for bicyclists who sweat a lot in cold climates or ride in wet and cold climates, though modern fabric technology has come such a long way over the last couple of decades that it’s no longer so easy to justify wearing wool.

Michael Beranek
Member
Michael Beranek
3 months ago
Reply to  Doughnaut

Didn’t we used to have this stuff called “canvas”?

Hugh Crawford
Member
Hugh Crawford
2 months ago

Canvas actually isn’t great for upholstery. A fabric with a pile like velour wears better because the part that wears are the fibers in the pile rather than the fibers the hold it together, like the warp and the woof.
My favorite upholstery is Pasha
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESWwAKMWsAEEuIs.jpg:large

Bob the Hobo
Bob the Hobo
3 months ago
Reply to  Doughnaut

Will gladly take a plaid-patterned fabric interior.

Crimedog
Member
Crimedog
3 months ago
Reply to  Bob the Hobo

Canvas is the best for plaid pattern! The 1:1 warp-to-weft makes coloration easy. Herringbone would need more like a denim/twill kind of thing.

I haven’t finished my coffee and realize this is not a high value post.

I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday, Bob the Hobo!

Bob the Hobo
Bob the Hobo
3 months ago
Reply to  Crimedog

Insights regarding lesser-known details like the best material for specific upholstery patterns are always welcome.

I wish you a wonderful Wednesday as well and hope you enjoy your coffee, Crimedog.

Rad Barchetta
Member
Rad Barchetta
3 months ago
Reply to  Crimedog

This is a community that goes berzerk over the minutia of tail light designs and has at least 15 articles related to feces in one way or another, and you felt that wasn’t a high value post?

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago
Reply to  Crimedog

Oh, is 1:1 warp to weft the definition of canvas, as opposed to other textiles? I’d never thought of it, but it makes sense.

Crimedog
Member
Crimedog
3 months ago

It is more about one over and one under for the weft. Using different thicknesses of yarns will get you different kinds/variations of canvas.

Denim weft goes one over and then at least two under. that leaves more of the weft yarns on top. You save money by having to only dye one direction 🙂

Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
Member
Harvey Park At Traffic Lights
3 months ago
Reply to  Crimedog

The more you know!

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