My Mom and I were talking about leather last week. There are still plenty of animals being butchered for meat but, where do all those hides go now? The post below has it wrong. They are assuming there is a demand for leather. When did you last see or touch anything that was 100% real leather from an animal? Think carefully because a lot can be labelled leather without actually being leather. Of course, its not quite false advertising because there are loopholes to get around almost any and all laws which used to govern marketing. So, it is unlikely anything called leather is actually authentic, real, actual leather from an animal hide.

Leather has always been a byproduct of the meat industry, and as Americans' beef consumption grew over the 20th century, the leather industry grew with it. The past three decades, though, have seen a decline of about 28 percent in Americans' appetite for beef, and the supply of hides has dwindled accordingly. At the same time, drought in the Midwest has pushed up feed prices. The result is that America has fewer and more expensive cows. Meanwhile, the world's consumers still want leather goods.

Source: Your Salad Lunches Are Killing American Leather - Bloomberg Business, 2015.

So, what does happen to all those hides? In Ontario we used to hear advertising (and even visited) the Olde Hide House in Acton, Ontario. Its been closed years ago, not enough business. No shortage of hides. Even though towards the end a lot of them were not coming from Canadian animals. Hides were sent from South America, not in the best of shape, but likely cheaper and maybe more available because it was not a great business for Canadian animal farmers to sell hides. The cost to have the hide processed was not balancing the money made from the sale of the hide.

Too much competition from the fake leather which did not need a lot of processing because it was not taken from any animal. Pleather, plastic leather, did not come from any animal. Carry on with all the other faux leather types, you can see how the business of making leather from animal hides went downhill.

But, we still have all those animals being eaten. So what does happen to all that could-have-been leather? It didn't disappear. Likely a lot of it is included in pet food. That's an easy way to sell parts of animal not sold as steaks, etc. Do you ever wonder what goes into that pet food they sell as pure beef, etc?

This leaves a whole possible business (if someone could come up with an idea) for animal hides to be used again, as something other than pet food, compost, or whatever it currently is going into. Can you think of any ideas? I can't either. The problem is still the cost of processing the hides. Turning hides into leather is not neat and tidy, it stinks, literally. Are there even any places still in Canada that cure hides? Its not something you can just hop into. Think of all the government control there would be for dealing with animal hides. Even before you can think of some new product (that would be cost efficient to make and sell well). Workers would need to be trained and its not a nice job so workers might not be found in Canada.

I don't think the leather industry, as it is, will see a come back. The faux leather is so much easier and cheaper to produce. It sells just as well as the real leather ever did. I doubt people, in general, could tell the difference. Another thing, real leather wears too well. It doesn't rip, fade, or need to be replaced often enough. So once you buy a real leather purse, coat, couch, etc. its not going to need to be replaced for a long time. Meanwhile all that faux leather can generate lots of sales - its not designed to last. Like most of the products made these days. The plan is to sell, sell, sell! Sell junk so you can sell more. Marketing at work!

Lastly, the beef industry and the guilt trip given about eating salad, or meals which do not heavily include beef/ meat. This idea of meat heavy meals is a more modern thing. People long ago did not have the amount of meat in their diet as we do now. Plates at restaurants, on cooking shows, and so on are at least two thirds meat, if not far more. That is not even healthy for people. Long before people could not choose to butcher an animal more than once a year. They were needed to provide milk and eggs, or eat bugs, some kind of service. The plates of pioneers, people from even 50 years ago would not have been meat heavy. It was expensive, not as available and people ate more vegetables. Dishes were more likely to include meat as an ingredient than to be on the plate at all. Soups, stews, all of those would use meat bones boiled down to create flavour. If there was still some meat from those bones it could be added. Meat was not abundant as it is now.

So these meat farmers complaining about salad eaters are basing this on an inflated market. A market created to sell beef/ meat. Like the faux leather, the marketing went wild, with no control over what the market actually could support in sales. Generating sales worked, too well. If you knew how many animals are slaughtered to feed people every day... its a kind of sickening. I'm not a vegetarian, I do eat meat, but I don't take it for granted. I do balance how much meat I eat with more vegetables on my plate. I don't eat out very much because those meals are just too meat heavy, not practical or realistic for what people really need to eat.

Protein is shouted all over the ads for anything edible now. I would not be surprised to see some company marketing ice cream as protein rich. It will have protein. But also a lot of sweetener you don't need. Protein can be found in food other than meat and dairy. How much protein are people eating, being kind of obsessed with it (like a food fad) versus what they really need? Eating too much of anything is not good. That is something you could look into for your own health/ needs.

Anyway, if people could stop eating so much meat they could be healthier and the environment would be better with less production of meat (meat takes far more resources than it does to produce vegetables and fruit). Don't take for granted all those animals which would not be born, live less than a year, and then slaughtered. I'm not expecting, or wanting, to stop eating meat, but there is no need to mass produce it at the current rate. Especially when so much of that animal is not being used but left as byproducts. Have you ever thought about the amount of bacon sold versus the rest of the pig killed to produce bacon? Its not just beef cattle out there being served up on a platter.

People say we grow enough food to feed everyone. Assorted reasons why it doesn't reach the people it could feed. But, that's just now.

Over population is still a bigger issue than feeding the people here so far and the distribution of that food. The best farm land is underneath cities because those were the choice places to grow food before they became built up. Now we are crowding out all the natural habitats for animals, losing our ecosystems and importing food from other countries which have all the same problems.

We can still grow food but the good land for growing it is disappearing. Growing food, especially for meat, is expensive and getting more expensive. Plus, whether its plant or animal, it takes a life. Vegetarians and many others think only about animal life. Mainly if it has fur. That's nice, but that's not all life.

Other issues are the pollution it creates. The use of fossil fuels to move it around, often long distances so keeping it from spoiling, rotting, or getting bruised (less than pretty looking) is another issue. Then packaging. Even now with the talk about not using plastic - plastic is still by far the main material used in almost all packaging.

There is far too much food waste. I don't blame anyone. It is hard to avoid having food waste now. Food, plants and meat, are not grown as their native, original ancestors (could not think of a better word) would have been. In order to look nice, be pest and drought and whatever else resistant, they are treated (isn't that a funny word) with chemicals. Did you know turkeys, as they are now, could not survive without people. Wild turkeys, yes. Farm animal turkeys and chickens have such an overgrown breast they could not reproduce. They would just die out. Our vegetables and fruit all have similar issues. Pick one and read about it. Did you know the meat you buy (unless its right from the farmer) has been given red colouring and injected with water to make it weigh more? Marketing schemes are everywhere, including food.

I've read about some science ideas to create food in different ways. There are so many. Plants to seem like meat. Growing a chunk of meat from some cells instead of supporting the life of a whole animal for years. Eating insects or algae. I post about them when I find something new.

I wonder where future people will get their food from? Maybe they can just duplicate the essence of protein, vitamins, minerals and calories we need and put them all into one pill you just take once a week. One thing, people wouldn't still be overweight. At least not because they enjoy eating junky food. No reason to put any flavour of salt, sugar, spice into a food pill. Not meant to be chewed just swallowed.

Tis the season for driving along country lanes and finding apple trees loaded with fresh fruit, never picked. Kind of sad those trees that grow forgotten along the road. Once they would have been picked, the apples used in pies or eaten right off the tree. Now people just drive on by and only notice them in passing. Yet those are our history, our heritage.

Next time you see an apple tree stop and pick a few. Some may be bug eaten, but some of the brown patches are only places where it rubbed on the tree branch and not anything you can’t just peel away. It may be the best apple you have ever had, if you give them a chance. Of those I picked almost all were edible, not bug eaten as I expected they would be. One was especially delicious. It’s a shame I don’t know what kind of apple tree it came from.

Would you grow an apple from seed? Have you ever grown a plant from seed? Why not try one, even something tropical or exotic and have it grow by your writing space. Keep your seedling company and let it inspire you with something fresh and growing where you work.

Fast food restaurants should begin serving happy meals for pets.

People seem to be having less human children and more pets. Some call themselves their pet's parent. (I have never called myself the parent of an animal). People seem to need to keep their pets with them and bring them in the car. So, why don't fast food restaurants have a happy meal for cats, another for dogs, one for assorted other pets like snakes, gerbils, rats, etc.

Likely the pet people would love this. Pets get thirsty and hungry too. Shopping trips, road trips, or just feeling like some hot French fries... why not also treat your pet?

On the plus side for restaurants (and people like myself who don't want pets in stores), the pet stays in the vehicle. No one gets bitten, has asthma or allergies and there is no poo to scoop - but pet mommies and daddies can give their animal a pet fast food treat while they have their own people fast food.

Start planning the packaging.

They did have their own unique way. Loads of butter and not being too fussy about how pristine everything was. Just like real people versus the over friendly and sterile stuff on most cooking shows now.

What can two fat ladies do? In this world where women are valued when they are young and skinny – what possible interest could two fat ladies from the UK have and how could they have published cookbooks and star in their own popular cooking show (1996 to 1999)?

Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright were the Two Fat Ladies

I loved the Two Fat Ladies because there dared to do things I would like to do. But, they dared to do them on TV, with people watching and they laughed too.

You can paralyze yourself with fear, make it hard just to get out of bed each morning. Out of bed it’s time to start thinking about how you look and how other people will see you. People with bad teeth won’t smile. People with bad hair wear a hat or shave it off. People who are fat can’t hide so well. Instead we think about how fat we look and we don’t smile, or talk much to other people. In short, many people are so self-conscious they do all they can to escape notice, stay in the background and go about doing what they must, living their own lives like ghosts. Living faded, in the background.

The Two Fat Ladies stepped out of the background and laughed about it.

They cooked with cream, butter, red meat and booze and they were not worried about dipping their fingers in or cooking in pristine conditions. They were biker babes riding a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike driven by Jennifer with Clarissa in the sidecar. The Two Fat Ladies were themselves and they let the rest of us see them that way too. I was proud of them and happy for them.

RIP Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright - You are missed.