Below: corn is an example of a food crop with non-food uses.

Two Major Categories of Products for Manufacture of Curent and Future Intrest

Products developed from agricultural sources are grouped in two major categories: they can either come from by-products of food production or from crops grown specifically for non-food use. An example of the first group would be the meat industry which provides hides, horns, glandular tissue, bones, blood, tallow, and even gallstones to be used for various non-food purposes. An example of the former group would be cotton, which is grown for fiber, but that, in modern times, also provides feed as a by-product from the seed in the form of vegetable oil and cottonseed meal. Another example of a specific crop that could also be grown for either food or non-food use is corn (maize), which is a food edible by humans, an animal feed, and a source of starch and fermentation alcohol.