People used to eat a lot more lamb and mutton because the demand for wool was much higher before synthetic fabrics.
I think sheep leather became really fashionable for awhile in the 1980s(?) and prices jumped but supply didn't increase that much because joint production.
What an incredibly powerful headline! This is a good point. It happens so often in our increasingly managed economies that there isn’t a comprehensive view of the impact of policy decisions.
And there is work on lab grown leather - which would command a substantial price premium as it would come in large uniform sheets that are much easier to work with. The large scale production of manufactured leather would probably have a significant impact on all the leather using industries, as the uniformity and size would probably make automation much easier.
I was thinking about this at the grocery store after noticing that some cuts of meat had become cheaper while other cuts from the same animal had become more expensive.
Related question: Do you know of any examples of joint production where an increase in demand for one good led to the price of a jointly-produced good becoming negative? (EG: Suppose beef instead became *more* popular, so much so that leather became a waste product.)
People used to eat a lot more lamb and mutton because the demand for wool was much higher before synthetic fabrics.
I think sheep leather became really fashionable for awhile in the 1980s(?) and prices jumped but supply didn't increase that much because joint production.
What an incredibly powerful headline! This is a good point. It happens so often in our increasingly managed economies that there isn’t a comprehensive view of the impact of policy decisions.
And there is work on lab grown leather - which would command a substantial price premium as it would come in large uniform sheets that are much easier to work with. The large scale production of manufactured leather would probably have a significant impact on all the leather using industries, as the uniformity and size would probably make automation much easier.
I was thinking about this at the grocery store after noticing that some cuts of meat had become cheaper while other cuts from the same animal had become more expensive.
Related question: Do you know of any examples of joint production where an increase in demand for one good led to the price of a jointly-produced good becoming negative? (EG: Suppose beef instead became *more* popular, so much so that leather became a waste product.)