“Leather is the most profitable product of farms”. This consideration is enough, when used to validate the thesis that leather is jointly responsible for deforestation in South America and elsewhere, to understand how certain Vogue offices do not have clear ideas about the tanning industry. Cotance, representing the industry at European level, batten down the hatches, and corrects Vogue: “There is no connection between leather and deforestation”. Those who know how the sector works, writes the general secretary Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, know that “the crucial products for breeding are meat, milk and wool, but certainly not the inevitable residue of the animal’s end of life, Leather”.
Vogue Business analysis
Making Cotance intervention necessary is an analysis by Vogue Business (November 27) entitled Fashion’s biodiversity problem. As we said, the author identifies leather (together with viscose) among the titling elements for the “main culprits” of the push that “leads to deforestation of critical ecosystems, such as the Amazon”. If in the eyes of the author, leather is burdened with such a heavy moral burden, we said, that depends on its profitability. Breeders are prepared for anything to protect tanning, one should think.
The carelessness
Cotance relies on an email to the editor to explain that the scenario is completely different. The author shows “that she doesn’t know anything about the tanning industry”, thunders Quijano. And yet, there was a time when the magazine “boasted expert journalists on the subject, those of Vogue Leather. But those were old times”, he regrets.
There is no connection between leather and deforestation
Cattle and sheep are bred for meat, milk and wool, sic et simpliciter. “Leather is a small fraction of the animal’s value”, Quijano recalls. The supply chain, therefore, sees tanning recovering the waste of another industry. “Leather is perhaps the oldest product of the circular economy – he continues -. It is sad to see its reputation destroyed by bad journalism from such an influential magazine”. And, even though the summer fires in the Amazon have raised the alarm among brands, “there is no causal link between leather and deforestation, even when leather is made with cattle hides produced in deforested areas”, concludes Cotance’s secretary. And it reminds those same brands that, to guarantee the reliability of supplies, there is a traceability scheme developed by CSCB Brazilians with the collaboration of the Italian ICEC.
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Leather UK against the Guardian: “Amazonia, it’s not leather’s fault”
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Lineapelle97: the topic on October 2nd will be tanning’s raw material
