a brief
HISTORY OF
CORN
by Philip McIntosh
If one were to name the
most important food plants
on Earth, corn (Zea mays)
would have to be near the
top of most lists. Known
as maize in many parts of
the world, corn was just a
humble grass when humans
began cultivating it as far
back as 10,000 years ago
in central Mexico.
C
orn likely originated from a plant
called teosinte (Zea luxurians), which
still exists, but you wouldn’t recognize it
as being much like the sweet corn found
in grocery stores. Teosinte does have
tassels on the male flowers much like
corn does, but the female cobs contain
few widely spaced seeds. It was a place
to start, though, and through generation
after generation of human selection,
teosinte was slowly transformed into
the crop plant we know today.
Christopher Columbus often gets the
credit for introducing corn to Europe,
but other New World explorers also
came into contact with it. Starting in the
late 1400s, corn began making its way
around the world. Early on, with the
Americas being an exception, corn was
considered a lowly sort of food, suitable
for the poor, farm animals, and perhaps
prisoners. It remains most popular in
the part of the world where it originated
and rose to become one of the Three
Sisters (along with climbing beans
and squash) of early Central and North
American agricultural societies.
Corn is not hard to grow, stores well,
and is well-suited to mechanized
production and processing methods.
About 93 per cent of all corn grown
in the US is genetically modified for
resistance to insect pests or herbicides
(or both). There are six distinct varieties
of corn, each for a particular use:
• DENT CORN | Perhaps better
known as field corn, it is used as
animal feed and as a feedstock
for many corn-derived products.
54
Maximum Yield
• SWEET CORN | The kind you eat
on the cob or buy in a can.
• FLINT CORN | Smaller, fewer kernels
with a hard, glossy outer shell. Less
commonly grown in the US.
• POPCORN | A type of dent or flint
corn with a hard kernel that bursts
open as internal water vapor
expands after heating.
• FLOUR CORN | Has a soft kernel
that is easily ground into flour
after drying.
• POD CORN | Can be any of the
above types but has individual
husks around each kernel. For
decorative use only.
Is it possible to escape the long reach
of corn? It wouldn’t be easy since
more than 4,000 different products are
made from it. Sure, you’ve got your
corn chips, but many other foodstuffs
and non-food products contain
ingredients derived from the noble
corn plant. These include fresh, frozen,
or canned corn, popcorn, cornmeal,
cornstarch, high fructose corn syrup,
and cooking oil. Most gasoline in the
US is augmented with ethanol, up to
10 per cent for regular gas and 85 per
cent for flex fuel, fermented using corn.
If you are into 3D printing, you have
probably used a plastic filament called
polylactic acid (PLA) which — you
guessed it — is derived from corn.
Whether for eating or for making
something else out of it, corn remains
one of the most important agricultural
products in the world.