As you sit in the classroom , you might wonder how cattle have any impact on your life . Oh , you know that cattle provide meat . You enjoy eating hamburgers , steaks , and roasts . But is that all we get from cattle ? No ! Cattle provide us with much more than meat .
Let ’ s start by looking at your shoes . Are they leather ? Leather comes from animals . The hide of animals is made into leather using a process called tanning . Are your shoes made of canvas ? Chances are the glue that holds the shoes together came from cattle . Are you sitting at a desk or on a chair ? If your desk has metal on it , this metal was made using tallow . Tallow is the grease we get from cattle . Anything made from steel uses tallow when it is made . Tallow is used to move the hot steel around when it is being manufactured . Does your desk have wood on it ? Look at the side of the wood desk . Can you see that it is made up of several pieces of wood glued together ?
Like the glue that is used in shoes , the glue used to make plywood or particleboard comes from livestock . Does your desk have anything plastic on it ? The material that helps make plastic hard comes from animals . How did you get to school today ? Did you ride a bus , come in a car , or ride a bike ? Well , you have already learned that the steel in these vehicles needed tallow from animals when it was manufactured and the plastic used a hardening agent from cattle . The tires , too , are hardened with materials from cattle . Many of the fluids , like antifreeze , used in cars and trucks come from cattle . In your classroom , materials from livestock help to make chalk , paper , books , erasers , and much more .
Like the Native Americans who used nearly every part of the bison to sustain their life , we use nearly every part of cattle when we harvest them .
Make a list of all the things you can think of that are made from steel .
Make a list of all the things around you that are made from plastic .
Make a list of all the things around you that use glue when they ’ re made .
Are cattle an important part of your life ? Yes , you can ’ t go through a day without using something made from cattle .