Corn: Significant Advances Then and Now

Corn, what is it and how did the genesis of corn begin from a tropical grass native to Mexico called teosinte that dates back more than 80,000 years ago to become maize that we all come to know as corn. When you hear or think about this simple word a few thoughts would pop in your head like popcorn, ethanol, or corn on the cob that you would find on your dinner plate. From multiple sources of information there are arguable facts about the evolution of maize. First, where it was domesticated; one states it originated between Jalisco and Oaxaca, Mexico, and the other states it came from the highland of Mexico. The second arguable fact is the date of when maize first appeared; one source states that it began “sometime between 2,000 and 750 years ago” (Zorich, Zach, pg.12), and another states “it started 7,000 years ago” (Guitar, Lynne, par.2). What can be proven is that corn first starts out from a tropical grass called teosinte in Mexico and through either accidental cross-pollinating or intentional bred, thus beginning of domesticating and the radical process of maize. Corn has changed the lives and lifestyles of people across the continent from its discovery, cultural change, and modern dominance in the products.

The introduction of corn to the Native Indians was like a wildfire. The migration of corn had spread from the tribes in Canada to the tribes in South America, becoming a major corner stone in beliefs, rituals, history, and gardening. The Native Indians would have first roasted the corn on the flat surface of a rock before using a stone bowl and muddle to grind the cooked corn into meal that would be used to make either cakes, breads, porridges, cornmeal, succotash, (a vegetable stew), and tortillas. The Cherokee has been noted to have produce from the corn kernels into what is a puffed vegetable that was termed in 1629 by the colonist hominy and sofkee, a sour corn mixture with a thickness that ranges from drink to porridge. It’s reported that back when the Pawnee existed, hominy that comes from flint corn, was one of their main sources of food, a hard-kernelled variety that is also able to grow in cold, wet climate of the Great Plain. The Hopi tribe was known to have produced twenty varieties of cultivated corn that is symbolic to them.

The Native Indians had built their belief, cultural, and planting system that still stands strong within all surviving nations around corn. The Native Americans would refer to a proven and efficient growing method as the ‘three sisters’, a process of growing corn, beans, and squash in a proven working symbiotic system that supports each other during growth. The corn gives the beans support, while the squash creates a living mulch over the bare soil between the corn hills and the beans supply nitrogen to the corn. Each food item “complements each other” (Tozer, Frank, ‘The Vegetable Growers Handbook’, 2013, p.116). The Zuni tribe believed that corn has miraculous power since they would the dust the doorway with cornmeal to keep them from entering. Another set of tribes would have ceremonies for the planting of the corn and the ‘green corn ritual’, a harvesting celebration that somehow renews new soil for the next planting season the Mahican and Muscogee tribes perform annually.

By about 1492, the Europeans had arrived in the Americas. By around that time the Indians had hundreds of varieties of corn being dent, flint, sweet, and popcorn were flourishing throughout the content becoming the ‘five major groups of corn’ (Guitar, Lynne, par.4). The introduction of corn to other neighboring countries around the world like means of trading made it possible for counties like Iberia, France, Italy, and China. China through the same process of crossbreeding used sweet corn with a grass native to their region to produce a product we all know today and eat in some of our Chinese food dishes: ‘baby corn’ (Tozer, Frank, ‘The Vegetable Growers Handbook’, 2013, p.116), that produces up to 40 ears per corn stalk. Some would refer baby corn as ‘Baby Asian’. Just like the Native Indians, the Europeans were also noted to use every part of the corn. The cob of the corn was turned into smoking pipes, stuffing in their mattresses, and the leaves from the ears of corn were used for as wrappings for a food item called tamale or made into children’s dolls for the girls. Most of their food items that were created around that period were considered to be convenient travel foods. All that still be made today if wanted, like the corn doggers and hush puppies, to name a few.

During the early 1800’s into the late 1800’s, the usefulness for corn made a comeback. Starting in the United States and spreading across the globe. A long-forgotten Native American food, popcorn, was revived as a snack, in amusement park and theater concessions, and a booth at the Columbia Exposition in Chicago. The idea took off without any problems, because it is sold at every sporting event. In the mid 1800’s, farmer Robert Reid created by chance a new hybrid called ‘Reid’s Yellow Dent’ (after the creator), the creation was by chance cross pollination but proved to be beneficial, it was widely cultivated in the Midwest. A vegetarian food faddist by the name of John Harvey Kellogg, in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1895 developed a cereal called, ‘cornflake’. By 1911, there was 107 brands of cornflakes to choose from. Mills that were used for grinding corn were marketed as ‘corn crackers’, in 1844, and by 1870 they were marketed as, ‘corn poppers’. The total corn growth in the United states alone has more than surpassed the combined growth of wheat, oats, barley, rice, rye, and sorghum. During the Civil War in 1860 the Confederate had mainly relied on corn as their crucial source of food for their soldiers. Corn production was increased from 30 million bushels to 55 million bushels to help bolster the food supply during the war in the feeding of their soldiers, but proved difficult due to rebel armies robbing the farmers of their laborers and emancipation setting the slaves free.

In the late 1800’s, through the mid to late 1900’s, to keep up with feeding a growing population in the United States in the 1920s, the U.S. government started to supply subsides to help the small individual farmers. The subsides increased around the 1930s, during the Great Depression. The Depression was felt by everyone including the farmers, to help offset some financial losses. During the hardship, farms failed or went under due to the collapse, agricultural companies started to absorb the small farms at produce their own by crops, making more profit and still receiving subsidies from the government. Even today the small individual farmers still don’t agree with the government’s handling of that issue. Between 1877 and 1920, horticulturists were able to develop new hybrids of corn that has become standard in the country’s farms, including ‘Golden Chaff’, ‘Shoepeg’, ‘Country Gentleman’, and ‘Golden Bantam’. At the same time while that was go on the United States in an attempt to cure the ills of society enacted the 18th Amendment, prohibition, that started in 1920 and ended in 1933. It was during this period that ingenuity and creativity took place in the South. Corn being the most widely grown next to wheat, cotton, and a few others. In the South the Great Depression hit them the hardest, the idea started by a bunch of small farmers that wanted to make money fast and easily. Through the process of fermentation and collecting the condensed steam as it is cooled you get a clear liquid called ‘corn squeezing’ (moonshine) that can reach a little over 120 proofs. There are three parts to the liquid. The first part is called the Heads, it has a bitter taste and is the first part that gets discarded first. A person can go blind if any it is consumed. The second part is called the Body. That is the desired part of the alcohol, and the last part is called the Tails. It has a tart taste to it, that can be added to the next batch to get more alcohol. In the state of Kentucky at the University of Illinois, in 1950, Dr. J. R. Loughnam, discovered a way to categories sweet corn by its genes into three different groups: normal sugar (Su), sugar enhanced (Se), and super sweet (Sh2). By 1960, Dr. A. M. Rhodes, produced an even sweeter corn called ‘Sugar Enhanced’ or, in seed catalogs, ‘Everlasting Heritage’.

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NASCAR Started from the bootlegging of moonshine and the development of the automobile-dependent working class. The drivers will take a vehicle reinforce the frame, strip anything that is heavy, and work on the engine to make it go faster. The reason is to drive as fast as possible while out running the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agents. Over time drivers would brag about how their vehicle is faster than the others, ensuing a race between two for bragging rights. It was not until 1947, William H.G., a mechanic and race car driver, turned sports promoter that start by organizing stock car races, he was able to assemble a group of race car driver, mechanics, and speedway owners. He oversaw the proceeding, that organized stock car racing born from an unregulated gathering into a nationally sanctioned competitive series with rules for ‘safety and performance’ (Howell, Mark D., par.4).

During World War II, solders on the battlefield were suffering not just from the injuries sustained in battle, but during recovery. Once an infection set in it was not good for the soldiers. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928. Around that time small amounts of antibiotics were first obtained from strains of mold species P. notatum grown in fermentation bottles. Fleming's penicillin was able to through the process of fermentation using corn steep liquor, a byproduct from ground corn. During the War the need for drugs spurred development of better methods. It was not until 1941, that a group of biologists working in England, including Oxford’s Sir H. W. Florey and E. B. Chain, purified the substance and prove its effectiveness against infectious organisms and its lack of toxicity to humans. The first successful test occurred in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1942.

Today corn accounts for more than 90 percent of the countries corn in the U.S. primarily meant to be for feed grain, planted on more than 80 million acres of land in Midwestern states like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Dakota, Iowa, and parts others became known as the ‘Corn Belt State’. The growth has always depended on climate conditions during the growing season which fluctuates. Currently more than 1/3 of the U.S. crop is used for livestock feed; another 20 percent is exported (Japan buys the most), and 40 percent goes for ‘ethanol production’.

As the U.S. population has grown, agriculture had to adapt to meet the demand for more food. The scientific breakthrough in the use of modifying the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), of existing food product or completely genetically engineering new food has become a more than common item since the 1990’s. Making genetically modified corn, cotton (in the form of cotton seed oil), canola(oil), and soybeans that are “widely present in many foods” (‘Agriculture & Food Supply: Issue Overview’, par.6). Many European nations have banned genetically modified food (GMO), for several reason all being health related and linked to a corn product called ‘high fructose corn syrup’ also relabeled on the back of the ingredient label as one of the three other possible names: ‘glucose-fructose’, ‘isoglucose’, and ‘glucose-fructose’. It is almost impossible to not consume it. It is in your everyday food items like syrup, most breads and cereals, baked goods, and dairy desserts such as ice cream and frozen yogurt. Many popular packaged foods not thought of as sweetened include your salad dressings, stove-top-stuffing, nutrition bars, crackers, cottage cheese, yogurt, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, tomato paste, jarred tomatoes sauce, applesauce, sweet pickles, relish, and the list goes on including fruit juices, sodas, and flavored drinks to just to “name a few” (Culvert, L. Lee, par.14).

The European Union (EU), has gone and taken steps in 2015, limiting how much fructose corn syrup is used annually to 303 thousand tons compared to prior annual use of 18 million tons in foods and beverages (Culvert, L. Lee, par.10). When compared to the United States, fructose intake has steadily increased. When taken in the health reasons, from the medical and nutritional research studies have reported that high fructose corn syrup is a significant cause of heart disease, obesity, cancer, dementia, and tooth decay, even in moderation (Culvert, L. Lee, par.7). Beekeepers have been doing is using diluted high fructose as a nectar substitute for honeybees when blossoms are scarce or absent. Beekeepers would supply a fructose solution that has a higher amount of sugar, fewer nutrients, and contains hydroxymethylfurfural, a chemical that tends to increase heat and is toxic to honeybees when consumed at high concentrations (Culvert, L. Lee, par.2).

Could a possible scenario where something happened to all the corn planted throughout the world? There were two recorded event such. The first was the Famine of 1692; it was noted to be a bloody confrontation between the indigenous group and the Spaniards in Mexico City. The former, desperate from the scarcity of food as well as colonial authorities' indifference to the tragic situation, had set fire to the viceroy’s palace and took arms with a shout, “Death to the Gachupin's (Spaniards) who eat our corn”. The Viceroy’s response to the Indian uprising was characterized by firm resolve and brutality and he ordered those who rose up in rebellion on that night to be “publicly hung” (Sarah Bak Geller, par.1). The second recorded event happened on May 3, 1785 to 1787, the inhabitants of New Spain, at the time the people were experiencing a drought, days, weeks, and, months would pass and no rain. All their chief crop, being the corn that was planted became a complete lost due to drought. The people were able to adapt by change a lot of their food recipes with a “substitution item” (Sarah Bak Geller, par.2).

With all the advancements made using corn, whether good or bad. What would happen if something was to happen to one or two stains, and what would the end results be? With the constantly new changes and development in gene splicing and manipulation, a new strain of corn could be invented to closely make up for the loss. Could a virus affect certain varieties of corn? Yes, and no matter the solution would be to destroy the affected plants and start over for seed that was saved as a solution.