PBS高端访谈:皮革制品并非真皮（在线收听）

HARI SREENIVASAN: Leather is one of humankind's oldest materials for making clothing, shoes, bags, among other things. We take an animal skin, clean it of its hair, chemically treat it and then tan it to make a fabric tough, attractive and useful. But what if we could create the exact same product without involving an animal at all? As it turns out, one company in new jersey is using biotechnology to do just that. NewsHour weekend's Christopher Booker has the story.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Modern Meadow's lab looks more brewery than bio-tech. But it won't be an IPA or a pale ale on the other end of this fermentation.

DAVE WILLIAMSON: I wish I had a homebrew set like this.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Dave Williamson is the chief technology officer at Modern Meadow. It's been perfecting a product for the past six years that will look, feel and be biologically similar to one of humankind's most durable and versatile materials leather.

DAVE WILLIAMSON: None of our DNA actually comes from any animal at all. It all starts synthetically.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: If you think what they're making is pleather, you'd be wrong. The process that starts in these labs is known as biofabrication.

The company uses a specially designed DNA sequence inserted into yeast cells. These custom cells are engineered to produce protein. It's one of the first steps in creating the leather-like fabric.

DAVE WILLIAMSON: What you can see along this bank here, is six different fermenters. And we carry out the very same process that you would use if you're making beer or wine. We feed them sugar. We feed them vitamins and minerals and instead of making you know alcohol, we make protein.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: The protein the company is growing is collagen, the same protein found in human and animal skin. It's a key step in the biofabrication process. The more collagen grown, the more fabric Modern Meadow can produce. Technicians then purify and assemble the protein into a material using a proprietary technique. The end result is a fabric that looks and feels like leather.

SUZANNE LEE: Biofabrication is, it's like a new material category.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Suzanne Lee is the chief creative officer at Modern Meadow. With a background in design and fashion, she works side-by-side with scientists to design functional new materials.

SUZANNE LEE: So if you think about the sort of history of materials, we've had natural materials from you know the natural world and then in the 20th century manmade materials that were from a petrochemicals source. The promise of biofabrication is actually bringing the best of both those worlds together.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Lee also says anything grown in its labs means a reduced environmental impact.

SUZANNE LEE: We're significantly reducing the inputs of things like water, land, CO2, and so forth. So the environmental profile of a material that is being manufactured in this way really has the potential to be dramatically different to traditional materials.

JOSHUA KATCHER: Leather is the single worst material for the environment.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Joshua Katcher is the owner of a men's vegan clothing line in Brooklyn, New York. He has taught classes on sustainable fashion at Parsons School of Design.

JOSHUA KATCHER: If you look at it from the perspective of a designer we look at the leather industry right now, it's bad design. It's so inefficient, it's so messy, it's so dirty, and you end up with a product that we can make in other ways that we can make better, superior.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Producing traditional leather requires massive amounts of water. And toxic chemicals used to process the animal hides can seep into local waterways. That's in addition to the land and resources required to raise the animals in the first place.

JOSHUA KATCHER: Biofabrication is offering a solution that says hey we don't need to raise these animals we don't need to harm or kill these animals and we don't need to use all of these resources to yield something like a fiber we can grow it in the laboratory at a much much smaller impact.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But what's going on here is about more than just leather. Suzanne Lee says the promise of biofabrication is the ability to control the properties of whatever materials Modern Meadow creates. For instance it can make a material less flexible or more breathable depending on what it wants. And the applications can extend to home interiors or even car seats.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: What are we going to see in the design of fashion with this new world of materials?

SUZANNE LEE: I think that's the fun bit in a way it opens up a lot of opportunity for us to explore new textures, the way something looks and feels that perhaps challenges you to what you expected. It could come in liquid form. We could spray it, we could mold it. There are many, many other things that we can now do that we didn't imagine five years ago.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Last year, the company launched the clothing brand, Zoa. It's first product, a white t-shirt pieced together using its leather-like biofabricated material, was recently displayed in the museum of modern art as part of a fashion exhibit. Investors have poured more than 50 million in venture funding but the company has yet to produce any clothing that's commercially available.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: So it's a ways off from say being able to purchase a shirt at Walmart that's been biofabricated?

SUZANNE LEE: Right. I mean, you know the first, the first thing is always going to be that any new technology is both expensive in the first instance and limited in its volume. But as all these companies scale the technology then it will come down in price and become more available.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Modern Meadow isn't alone in creating biofabricated fashion materials. Several other companies are experimenting with similar technology.

BOLT THREADS AD: Here at Bolt Threads, we've developed a way to replicate the proteins from spider silk and spin them into fibers and yarns.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Bolt Threads, a California company, created this tie from biofabricated silk. Joshua Katcher was one of 50 people to buy one for about 300 dollars. He calls it a piece of fashion history.

JOSHUA KATCHER: We're talking about an ability to have a form of ultimate control over how an object functions what it looks like how it feels. Today we're quite limited to what what nature allows and we can move beyond that.

哈里·斯瑞尼瓦桑：皮革是人类制作衣服、鞋子、包等物品时所使用的最古老的材料之一。我们会把动物皮上的毛发清理干净，进行化学处理，制作柔韧性强、外观好看又实用的料子。但如果不用动物皮就能做出一样材质的料子呢？我们公司通过生物技术制作的新型运动衫确实做到了这一点。下面请听我台记者克里斯多夫·布克发回的报道。

克里斯多夫·布克：现代农场的实验室与其说是使用生物科技的实验室，不如说是酿酒厂。但也不会是发酵作用的另一个极端，不会是酿造异丙醇和麦酒的。

戴夫·威廉姆森：我好希望有自酿的这种酒。

克里斯多夫·布克：戴夫·威廉姆森是现代农场的首席技术官。过去6年来，我们一直在完善一种产品，让他无论是从感官还是从生物角度看都与人类耐用性强、用途多样的皮革有相似的效果。

戴夫·威廉姆森：我们的DNA没有一种是来自动物的，其形成的起点要综合看待。

克里斯多夫·布克：如果你觉得他们在做的东西人造皮革，那你就错了。这些实验室里开始的这个流程就叫做生物制造。该公司将一种特殊设计的DNA序列插入酵母菌中。

这些经过自定义的酵母细胞通过工程手段就可以产出蛋白质。这是制造与与猫相似的料子的第一步。

戴夫·威廉姆森：沿着这个河岸，能看到6个发酵桶。这个流程跟酿酒一样，就是给它们喂糖。我们给它们喂的是维他命和矿物质，所以产出的也不是酒精，而是蛋白质。

克里斯多夫·布克：该公司培养的是胶原，这是一种蛋白质，在人体和动物皮中都存在。这是生物制造流程中的重要一步。有了更多的胶原，现代牧场就能生产更多的料子。然后，技术员将蛋白质进行纯化处理，然后用专有技术聚合到材料里。所以生产出来的材料无论外貌还是手感都跟皮革十分相似。

苏珊娜·李：生物制造就像一种新型材料种类。

克里斯多夫·布克：苏珊娜·李是现代牧场的首席创意官。她有设计和时尚方面的背景，她跟许多科学家合作，设计出了功能性很强的新型材料。

苏珊娜·李：回想一下材料发展的历史，就会发现我们从大自然中取材了很多自然材料。20世纪的时候，人造材料取材于石油化工领域。生物制造的愿景就是取各方之精华，融合在一起。

克里斯多夫·布克：李也表示，实验室培养的任何东西都是在减少对环境的影响。

苏珊娜·李：我们正在大幅度减少水、土地、二氧化碳等的影响。用这种方式生产的材料对环境概貌是有影响的，与传统物料截然不同。

约书亚·凯契尔：皮革是对环境危害最大的物料。

克里斯多夫·布克：约书亚·凯契尔是纽约布鲁克林男士素食服装线的店主。他在帕森斯设计学院教可持续时尚的课。

约书亚·凯契尔：如果从一名设计师的角度来看现在的皮革业的话，我觉得这个设计很糟糕。效率太低，一盘散沙，物料脏乱。如果用了其他方式，这样一个产品本来可以做得更好，做到极致的。

克里斯多夫·布克：生产传统的皮革会产生大量的水。而用来处理兽皮的有毒化学物质会深入当地的水道。这还不包括养动物所要用的土地和其他资源。

约书亚·凯契尔：生物制造提供了一个解决方案：我们不需要再养动物啦，也不用伤害甚至杀戮这些动物了。我们不需要这些材料来生产类似于纤维的东西，我们完全可以在实验室里制造材料，对环境的影响会更小。

克里斯多夫·布克：这不只是皮革的问题。苏珊娜·李表示，生物制造的愿景就是实现一种能力，可以控制现代牧场生产的一切物料的特性。比如，可以根据需求制造弹性稍低或者呼吸性更好的物料。这些应用可以扩大到室内设计甚至车座设计中。

克里斯多夫·布克：用新物料设计出的时尚会是什么样子呢？

苏珊娜·李：我觉得会很有趣，会跟我们开放很多机会，可以探索研究新的物料质地。物料的感官和质感或许会比超越我们的预想。甚至可能是液态的物料。我们可以在物料上喷洒，也可以将其定型。现在，我们能做的很多事情都是我们5年前想不到的。

克里斯多夫·布克：去年，该公司新创了一个服装品牌名为Zoa。其第一个产品是一件白色的T恤，这款T恤是用跟皮革十分相似的生物制造物料拼接而成的。最近，这款T恤作为时尚展览的一部分在现代艺术博物馆展出。投资方斥资5000多万美元的风险资金，但该公司生产的产品中暂时没有可以进行商业运作的。

克里斯多夫·布克：所以，我们距离能在沃尔玛超市买到经过生物制造的T恤还有很远的路要走，对吗？

苏珊娜·李：没错，而且，众所周知，第一款出来的产品都会很贵，因为新科技成本很高，而且都是限量的。但当技术大规模普及的时候，成本就会降低，使用度就会提升。

克里斯多夫·布克：现代牧场并不是唯一一个通过生物制造方式为时尚界生产物料的公司。还有几家公司也在用类似的技术做实验。

Bolt Threads公司：我们这里研发了一种方式，可以从蜘蛛丝上复制蛋白质，然后通过纺纱将其制成纤维和纱线。

克里斯多夫·布克：加州公司Bolt Threads通过生物工程手段将制作丝织品与蜘蛛丝联系起来。包括约书亚·凯契尔在内，有50人出300美元买了一个这样的产品，约书亚说，这是时尚界历史上的一个节点。

约书亚·凯契尔：我们讨论的是一种终极的控制能力，即可以控制物件的各种功能、款式和手感。大自然赋予我们很多，但目前为止，我们突破地还十分有限，我们可以进一步创新发展。