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The latest roar surrounding cow-flesh trade has made everyone take notice of something that has apparently existed in the country for centuries.<br />
<br /> "Everyone wants to use leather products, but will beat up the guy who gets it out of the dead animal for them," says Hirabhai Chavda, a third-generation businessman dealing in cow flesh. Based in Saurashtra, Chavda skins dead carcasses of cows, and has been doing so for years, but it’s only recently that he has started to face a threat from the so-called <keyword id="2830419" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="cow-protectors">cow protectors</keyword>.<br />
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"Everything that comes from a dead cow is used," Hirabhai told ET. "While meat is consumed, the leather is sold to the industry, so are bones and hooves," he adds.<br />
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"Earlier, when the market was good, leather would be sold for Rs 800. Now it barely fetches Rs 500 a piece. Then there is bone. Each carcass would get as much as 10 kg of bones, which brings about Rs 10 per kg. In case of a good animal, you also get 5-6 kg fat, which is sold for Rs 20 per kg," he adds.<br />
<br /> The business of these carcasses is so well-established that there is an elaborate system for disposing off the carcasses, essentially manned by the people belonging to the <keyword id="3576077" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rohit-community">Rohit community</keyword>. As per the system, ‘Bham’, a group of few families belonging to the Rohit community, bids for the clearance of dead animals with the local panjrapoles.<br />
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This leads to each bham getting about six to seven dead animals per day, eventually giving them Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 of monthly income per person.<br />
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"Earlier, we used to tan the leather in villages but now with big players coming up, we only skin the animal, apply salt and send them to tanneries in Kanpur, Kolkata, Chennai or Hapur," Hirabhai says, while also telling that the bones meet their fate in the crushing mills in Central Gujarat.<br />
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As per Manjula Pradeep, ED, Navsarjan, a grassroots Dalit organization, the dead cow processing business has an estimated annual turnover of Rs 1,200 crore.<br />
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While the Rohit community disposes of carcasses, Valmiki community, considered to be untouchable even by the Rohit community, takes care of carcasses of cats, dogs or smaller animals, the carcasses of which are not of any financial benefit.<br />
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"The caste lines are much stronger among Dalits than even in the dominant community even today," said an activist from the Rohit community. "See all these big industries are run by people of dominant castes and they are making crores of rupees in the business, but we who get the basics for them get to live with the beatings and pittance," he says.<br />
<br /> "PM speaks about <keyword id="6361202" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Swachh-Bharat">Swachh Bharat</keyword>, just take a look around the places where Dalits have gone on strike. The stench will tell you how Swachch Bharat is when we don't do what we do," he smirks.<br />
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Facing threat from the cow protectors, the Rohit community has not been lifting dead animals since July 18, which has pushed the administration to edge.<br />
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<a href="http://quintype-01.imgix.net/thequint/2016-07/ff855bdb-ab09-41b2-92b8-bf85b6640907/RTR8B32.jpg"><em>Image source</em></a><br />

Dead cows make up for Rs 1,200-crore business in Gujarat

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Modern Meadow</span></p><p class="caption">Leather grown in Modern Meadow's lab.</p></div><p></p></div></div>You don't want to think about how your favorite leather jacket, shoes or watch strap were made.</p><p>But the process - from the time it takes to farm an animal, ship it to a slaughter facility, prepare and then tan the hide - can take years.</p><p>In Brooklyn, a team of 35 people have found a way to create real leather in about two weeks. And their process doesn't harm any animals.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lxe5-3cpEE&amp;feature=player_embedded#!">nmpan via YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">Modern Meadow says no animals are harmed to grow its leather. Instead it just uses some skin cells.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Modern Meadow is a startup that has over a dozen patents and grows leather in a lab from skin cells that produce collagen, a protein found in the connective tissues of animals. That collagen turns into leather that's free of blemishes, hair and fat.</p><p><span>For the past four years<strong>,</strong> Modern Meadow has been focused on research and development. Now, it's raised $40 million from Nest founder Tony Fadell, Li Ka-shing's Horizon Ventures, the "<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2014/12/01/the-spider-of-silicon-valley-inside-zuck-friends-secret-billionaire-fund/#292cf2ef16f1">Zuck and friends' billionaire fund</a>" Iconiq Capital, Breakout Capital, Artis Ventures, and Singapore's Temasek to bring its material to the masses.</span></p><p><span>"<span>We are making real, fully biological leather here," Modern Meadow co-founder and CEO Andras Forgacs told Tech Insider. That's unlike most synthetic leather which is made from plastic and chemicals.</span></span></p><p><span>"[Making leather] is this really long process with a lot of inefficiencies," Forgacs said. "You're working subtractively, removing the hair, flesh and the fat [from the hide] ... Instead we work additively. We just create collagen to make the material and that's it."</span></p><h2><strong>How to grow leather in a lab</strong></h2><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Modern Meadow</span></p><p class="caption">Modern Meadow's lab.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Modern Meadow uses a process called "biofabrication" to grow pieces that look and feel just like animal leather. Forgacs describes biofabrication as biotechnology meeting material science and design. His team </span><span>works off of skin cells that have been programmed to produce collagen identical to that of a cow or another desired animal. </span></p><p><span>"We start with what leather is in its end state," he explained. "We can produce cow collagen, alligator collagen - any kind of collagen using the tool kit of biotechnology. We've developed a way to organize this collagen to get it to recapitulate into the full biological structure of that collagen in hide that we then treat to become leather."</span></p><p><span>After the collagen is grown into leather, it's sent off to a tannery where it's treated and turned into products you're used to wearing, from purses to watch straps to shoes, belts and more. The company can control all sorts of things, from the thickness of the leather it grows to the elasticity and aesthetic.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>TED</span></p><p class="caption">Modern Meadow uses skin cells to make collagen which grows into leather rather than slaughtering an animal</p></div><p></p></div></div>The first time Modern Meadow grew leather successfully in a lab was four years ago, in late 2012. Then, it took about 2 months to create the material. </span></p><p><span>Modern Meadow's leather isn't ready for consumers to try yet. But the startup is partnered with some fashion companies and tanneries, and hopes the fresh $40 million will enable it to scale its process and make its leather goods available for purchase within a few years.</span></p><h2><strong>Growing meat without animals</strong></h2><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Modern Meadow</span></p><p class="caption">Modern Meadow CEO and cofounder Andras Forgacs</p></div><p></p></div></div>Leather is a $100 billion industry, according to Forgacs. So his team is focused on tackling that for now. But they've tried growing other animal products in the lab, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/06/18/modern-meadow-raises-10m-to-grow-leather-in-labs-not-from-livestock/">including meat, fish and poultry</a>. </span></p><p><span>Prior to starting Modern Meadow, Forgacs cofounded a publicly-traded 3D bioprinting company called <span>Organovo. At Organovo, his team was able to make skin models of things like fully-functioning livers and kidneys. Other companies approached him then about creating related materials, such as leather or meat.</span></span></p><p><span><span>"We were initially dismissive of those inquiries," Forgacs recalled. But while he was living in China, Forgacs gave more thought to the consumer possibilities and reconsidered. </span></span></p><p><span><span>"I started thinking these ideas were not so crazy, if you can think of different ways of producing these animal products," he said.</span></span></p><p><span><span>So, when will you be eating a Modern Meadow burger?</span></span></p><p><span><span>Not for a while, Forgacs says - although maybe someday.</span></span></p><p><span><span>"Leather being a $100 billion global market is large enough to keep us busy for quite a while," he told Tech Insider. "I wouldn't say [meat] is on the back burner, but it's a longer-term opportunity."</span></span></p><p>Here's a Ted Talk Forgacs gave in 2013 about how his biotechnology works. The process to make a strip of leather then took a few months. Now it takes Forgac's team a few weeks. </p><p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ads-follow-you-internet-privacy-disable-2016-6">This new Facebook feature stalks you all over the internet - here's how to turn it off</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Qwa20wNDE6fLf9uEtszPhZ1dI3v9p-lu" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A Brooklyn startup that's armed with $40 million is growing real meat and leather in a lab without hurting a single animal

You Searched For "cow flesh trade" and got 2 results

Dead cows make up for Rs 1,200-crore business in Gujarat

BI India Bureau

A Brooklyn startup that's armed with $40 million is growing real meat and leather in a lab without hurting a single animal

Alyson Shontell

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