The leather jacket even vegetarians can wear: PayPal billionaire backs firm promising to grow leather in the lab

* Modern Meadow also plans to grow meat in the lab - but says public perceptions mean it will grow leather first

By Mark Prigg

Leather grown in a lab could be on sale within five years, according to a firm backed by PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel.

Modern Meadow is also developing lab grown meat - but says that its first product could change the clothing industry.

The firm says the firm lab grow leather could be on sale within five years.

'Our emphasis first is not on meat, it’s on leather,' company cofounder and CEO Andras Forgacsays told Txchnologist.

'The main reason is that, technically, skin is a simpler structure than meat, making it easier to produce.'

The firm said part of its decision to focus on leather was the public reaction to its plans for

'Anecdotally, we’ve found that around 40 percent of people would be willing to try cultured meat,' he says.

'There’s much less controversy around using leather that doesn’t involve killing animals.'

The firm says its biggest problem is how to mass produce the cells needed for leather and meat.

Modern Meadow’s meat and leather would be competing for a share of a combined $2.5 trillion market, Forgacs says.

The firm hopes the project, which recently received a grant of £220,000 from Peter Thiel, could ease environmental concerns over meat production.

'If you look at the resource intensity of everything that goes into a hamburger, it is an environmental train wreck,' said Forgacs.

However, Modern Meadow admits that the road ahead is not going to be easy.

'The consumer acceptance of such products may not be without challenges,' it revealed in a submission to the United States Department of Agriculture.

'We expect it will first appeal to culinary early-adopter consumers and the segment of the vegetarian community that rejects meat for ethical reasons.

'With reduction in price, it can reach the masses with religious restrictions on meat consumption (people restricted to Hindu, Kosher, Halal diets) and finally populations with limited access to safe meat production.'