Corn – it’s an American favorite. We love it popped, roasted, processed into chips, baked into corn muffins, liquified into soda, hydrogenated into crackers – the list goes on and on. And what would a great American picnic be without hot buttered corn on the cob?
And really, what would Mexico be without the tortilla, tamale or atole? Maize (corn’s original name) was domesticated from a wild grass thousands of years ago in southern Mexico and soon became a staple of the Americas, from North to South. But if corn was such an important and nutritious food for the first people of these continents, why is it the bane of our modern diet today?
It’s because ancient maize has little in common with today’s plump-kernelled sweet corn. Maize came in multi-colors, with small, hard kernels of blue and red. Traditionally, maize was grown and hand-processed in ways that made it more nutritious than our modern, genetically modified varieties. Back in “the day”, maize was often grown with companion plants that would enrich each other’s nutrition, but today, most American corn is grown with pesticides and fertilizers, completely depleting and destroying the soil (not to mention polluting nearby waterways). Finally, genetic modification (thanks, Monsanto) has altered this once-revered grain into something that’s not quite what nature intended.
Editor’s note: We’re exploring the environmental, ethical, public health and economic realities of corn this week at EcoSalon. Here are some articles you may have missed.
Birth control on the cob?
Corn – it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
How corn changed the cattle industry
Image: Images of Anthropology