The beef industry provides us with more than just the food we eat every day. Most of the items we enjoy incorporate a beef byproduct. To understand the impact the beef industry has on us, we must first recognize what byproducts are, the export market for them, and the value added to the carcass by acquiring these products.

Byproducts such as the offal, blood, hides, and rendered products all come from parts of the animal's body that are not included in the packaged meat that we buy at the butcher. According to "Where's the (not) Meat," an article by USDA, "The use of animal byproducts dates ba...