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by Steve Peters
 Corn, known throughout most of the world as maize (Zea mays), represents the most remarkable plant breeding achievement in the history of agriculture. The modern manifestation of this ancient plant bears little resemblance to its original ancestor, a wild grass from southern Mexico called teosinte. This transformation from an inconspicuous grass to a diverse, highly evolved and productive food plant is a story of co-evolution and interdependence between humans and maize that spans thousands of years and involves millions of farmers.
An Unlikely Ancestor
Teosinte is a tall, drought-tolerant grass that produces, instead of a cob, spikes close to the ground, filled with two rows of small, triangular-shaped seeds within an enclosed husk. A hard shell around each seed protects them once they fall to the ground.
Perhaps within 100 years after discovering that teosinte was edible, people began selecting spikes to plant near their homes, which were close to irrigation sources. These selected plants continued to be developed in isolation from wild teosinte that was growing in the surrounding forests, and thus the process of developing maize had begun.
The oldest known corncobs, distinctly different from teosinte, were found in the highlands of Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico and are estimated to be 5,400 years old. They had two to four rows of kernels firmly attached to the cob and were only one-inch long. Yet, even by then, there had already been at least two thousand years of human manipulation.
This attachment of kernels to a central cob and the lack of a hard, inedible coat around the seed are the key factors that have inextricably bound corn with humans ever since those early times. Firm attachment meant that ears must be harvested and kernels manually removed from the cob for corn to successfully reproduce and disperse. Lack of a hard seed coat required protection, namely cool and dry storage, until the following spring planting.
The Cradle of Corn Diversity
  The exact location of the first maize distinct from teosinte is unknown, although multiple hot, humid, lowland sites throughout Mesoamerica have been suggested, including Panama, the Gulf Coast region of Tabasco, Mexico, and the Balsas River basin bordering the Mexican states of Guerrero and Michoacan. Expansion to highland regions followed soon after.
Although the tropical lowlands may be the source of the original maize, the cradle of maize breeding has been the mountain valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. This area has been a crossroads for plant and animal migration for millions of years, and its unique topography has created many different climatic and soil conditions within a relatively small area.
Boone Halberg, foremost expert on corn who has lived and worked in Oaxaca for over 50 years, has estimated that there may be over 85,000 varieties of corn unique to Oaxaca. This represents perhaps the greatest diversity of any known crop in the world, and to this day the farmers of Oaxaca continue selecting and improving their maize varieties.
Corn Culture in the Americas
Maize culture spread first southward and then northward beyond its area of origin. Northern New Mexico had maize 6,000 years ago. From there, it took nearly 5,000 more years to reach the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The farming tribes of the Ohio valley consumed little or no corn in 800 AD, but by 1100 AD it was a major part of their diet. The Iroquois nation of New York state began growing corn about 1070 AD.
It was previously believed that the introduction of corn quickly transformed nomadic hunter/gatherers into farmers. Archeological evidence now suggests that when corn was introduced, people were already farmer/horticulturists, and that the change from botanical curiosity to dietary staple occurred over a much longer period of time, perhaps 1,000 years or more. Therefore, before the arrival of corn, early cultures already were becoming sophisticated, complex societies. Maize, because it grows fast and yields well did, nevertheless, lead to a dramatic population increase throughout its area of dispersal. It also became integral to the social and spiritual lives of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.
When Columbus arrived to the New World 500 years ago, maize was grown from southern Canada to the southern tip of South America, and from sea level to elevations over 11,000 feet. Its adoption by thousands of diverse cultures over 7,000 years has produced an astounding variety of shapes and forms. Heights range from the two feet tall chapalote from North American deserts, to the twenty-feet (yes twenty!) tall Olaton gigante from Oaxaca. Maturity dates are from two to fifteen months. Ears from five to forty-five inches long produce a rainbow of kernel colors and different sizes of flint, dent, flour, and popcorn types. Some maize varieties flourish in areas receiving 200 inches of rain per year, while others survive with a mere five inches annually.
Preserving Corn Diversity and Continuing the Evolution
Seeds of Change has always offered a range of corn varieties, representing a tiny but significant sampling of the staggering diversity that exists today. We continue to add heirloom, traditional, and newly developed corn varieties to our list. While our yellow and white sweet corns might resemble what many think of as classic "corn on the cob," our dent, flour, and parching types will vastly expand the adventurous grower's appreciation for this revered crop.
 Popcorn, perhaps the most ancient type, has an extremely hard endosperm (interior of the seed containing stored food), which, when heated, explodes (pops). Japanese Hulless is a popular standard grown widely throughout Asia. Chires Baby has miniature ears and tiny red kernels and yields up to thirty ears per plant; it can be also stir-fried whole in its immature stage.
 Dent Corn has a distinct indentation on the top of the kernel caused by the softer inner endosperm shrinking more than the harder, translucent outer portion of the kernel. This type is the most widely grown commercial type in the U.S. Our Oaxacan Green Dent has been grown for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years by the Zapotec Indians in Oaxaca, Mexico: when ground, it produces a delicious, nutty, green flour, which makes some of the best cornbread we've ever tasted. Flint corn, has a very hard, translucent endosperm, and unlike dent types, it lacks the softer interior. This is the type common to native peoples from the northeastern and midwestern U.S. Wachichu Flint is a traditional variety from a Sioux tribe in eastern North Dakota. One of our seed growers from that area fell in love with this variety (and you will too!) for its gorgeous array of colors and its versatility as a high-quality forage and grain.
 Flour Corn has a soft endosperm, which is easier to mill than the harder dent and flint types. Great examples are Hopi Pink, Hopi Purple, and Anasazi from the American Southwest, and Mandan Red from the Northern Plains.
 Parching Corn also has a soft endosperm—and is typically dry roasted on a hot skillet, where it expands slightly to make a nutritious and flavorful snack. We like to add a little powdered red chile. Supai Red and Magenta Purple have their origins from indigenous people of the Andes in South America.
 Sweet Corn is the newest type of corn; it was developed about 200–250 years ago. It's distinguished from other corns by its high sugar content during the earlier stages of maturity (milk and early dough) and by its wrinkled, translucent kernels when dry. True Gold and True Platinum are Seeds of Change selections of yellow and white heirloom varieties, respectively, and are perennial favorites with our customers. Stowell's is a very tall, venerable white-seeded heirloom, and Hooker's and Triple Play are excellent short-season varieties. Black Aztec is eaten as sweet corn when its kernels are white, but when its kernels mature to a blue-black it becomes an excellent flour corn. Rainbow Inca is a fascinating blend of large, white, flat-seeded chokelo (flour) type from Peru, several colorful Southwestern flour varieties, and a few heirloom sweet corns. At 75–80 days it is sweet and flavorful when steamed, at 80–95 days it becomes more starchy and is delicious roasted, and after 120 days it reaches its full "rainbow" stage and can be dried and milled for flour.
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In the Fall of 2001, it was reported in the scientific journal Nature, that DNA from Genetically Engineered (GE) "Bt corn" (corn with the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, an effective natural insecticide, spliced in) was found in some native varieties in Oaxaca, Mexico. It was assumed that corn imported for food use from the U.S. was planted by local farmers and later contaminating local crops through wind pollination. This was not the first time that transgenes had been found in supposedly Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) free corn.
The authors of the Nature article suggested that the transgenic DNA had caused disruption of several plant functions and that the transgenes were behaving unpredictably. After much controversy around how extensively the transgenes had penetrated the native varieties, Nature eventually retracted the article claiming that the science was flawed. No one, however, actually denied that the transgenes were found in the native corn. For many native peoples, corn breeders, and organic farmers the news came as a shock. The Oaxaca region is the center of diversity for corn and home to thousands of distinct varieties that are invaluable to our genetic legacy.
Since its entry into the market eight years ago, GE Bt corn has been effective at controlling the European corn borer (ECB) and the corn rootworm (CRW). However, because the Bt is present in every cell of the corn and remains active in the plant material even after the corn has died, the scientific community acknowledges that it is only a matter of time before new Bt resistant races of ECB and CRW appear. Organic growers who have traditionally relied on Bt as a short-lived, extremely safe topical spray for pest control, fear that they will no longer be able to rely on this valuable tool and that the biotech industry will profit at their expense.
At Seeds of Change, we grow our seed corn in isolated areas away from commercial GMO crops and test each and every lot of seed corn that we sell. We can safely say that all our corn is GMO free. Corn is fundamental to the integrity of many cultures, and we are proud to be maintaining GMO free, organically grown strains of eighteen treasured varieties. Consequently, farmers are free to save and pass this seed on to future generations.
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A Robust Plant of Many Uses
Maize is consumed in an unprecedented number of ways, including as a sweetener, a rare delicacy at religious feasts, a fermented beverage, and as a cooking oil. Dried corn silks were used as a tobacco substitute. Cornmeal gruel served as a poultice, or when scorched, used as baby powder. It is eaten boiled, roasted, parched, popped, as a steamed vegetable, and as a dry grain.
The biological superiority of maize over other plants is due to its ability to accumulate greater amounts of heavy (C13) carbon to produce higher yields over a shorter time period. At the time of Columbus' arrival in the New World, a standard cereal (wheat, barley, and rye) yield in Europe was six units seed harvested for every one unit planted. (6 to 1). In contrast, a standard maize yield was 150 to 1. In bad years, when rain was scarce, maize yields may drop to 70 to 1, but that's still 10 times greater than the standard European cereal yield. Corn yields of Olmec farmers 3,000 years ago have been estimated to be 180–250 lbs. (dried and shelled) per acre. Yields today can be ten times higher, but often with a high cost to the environment due to heavy applications of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
The Niacin Problem
There are, however, precautions that must be taken when maize is the dominant food. The poorer people of 19th century Europe consumed so much maize that it caused pellagra, a chronic disease that begins with diarrhea and can end with dementia and death, and is caused by a deficiency of niacin. This is prevented with a more diverse diet that contains niacin.
Pellagra can also be avoided by eating corn in the form of tortillas. This ancient tradition of the Mesoamericans requires corn grains to be boiled with an alkaline substance. This process results in niacin being more available for human consumption. In actuality, it is not that maize lacks niacin, but it is simply unavailable in most ways that it is consumed. Curiously, while corn spread rapidly throughout the globe within 50 years of Columbus landing in the New World and was eaten in hundreds of different ways, the tortilla tradition did not travel beyond its origin in Mesoamerica.
Adaptation and Sustainability in the Americas
Several years ago, a group of Native American farmers and scholars gathered at Cornell University to celebrate the gift to the world that Indian corn represents. They spoke of the spiritual, psychological, social, agronomic, nutritive, and sustainable value of maize through personal experiences as well as academic research.
Arturo Warman from Mexico explained how maize became an organizing principle for traditional societies. Where to plant maize and where to locate the village in relation to the maize fields were important considerations as communities expanded. Maize also organized time, by the seasons of planting, cultivating, and harvest.
Jorge Quintana outlined the specific practices of corn agriculture that have sustained the Nahua Indian communities of Nicaragua for millennia. Quintana explained that they first burn the fields just prior to the onset of the rainy season to eliminate weeds and concentrate mineral nutrients. Chickens and other birds then go into the fields to eat soil-dwelling insects that otherwise may harm the crop. Planting is always done on the new Moon, as celestial events are known to have significant influences on the success of the crop. Weeding is done selectively, leaving legumes and habitat for beneficial insects, and harvesting some weeds for medicinal purposes. The Nahua also developed the strategy of interplanting with beans, squash, and cassava to increase overall production and diversify their diet.
Jane Mt. Pleasant spoke of the sustainable agricultural systems of the Iroquois nation in New York state. The practices were different from the Nahua of Nicaragua, of course, but were perfectly adapted for their own environment. In recent years, agricultural scientists and farmers have been making concerted efforts to improve the sustainability of conventional agriculture by developing and incorporating a variety of techniques into agricultural systems. The techniques receiving the most attention include No-Tillage, Ridge-Tillage, Crop Rotation, and Intercropping. Ironically, all of these practices were utilized and perfected by Iroquois farmers more than 800 years ago.
Although the yields of indigenous varieties are not as high as modern hybrids, they tend to be more reliable, sustainable, and better adapted to the local environment. Boone Halberg (mentioned above) relates the story of introducing modern, hybrid corn into Oaxaca. During the rainy season, the hybrid corn produced big, lush, dark green plants compared to the local varieties, which were smaller and more yellow. Then the rains stopped and the hybrid corn died, while the local varieties went on to produce a decent grain yield.
The Spiritual Connection
 At the Cornell Conference, Rederico Teni spoke of the sacred significance of corn among his Kekchi people of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. At 500,000 strong, they are one of 22 distinct indigenous groups descended from the ancient Maya. The following is an excerpt from Teni's remarks quoted in the Northesat Indian Quarterly cited below:
"From the beginning of time, our Indian ancestors spoke to us about corn. In our sacred book that remains with us, the Pop-wuj, sacred book of the Maya, two of our original people, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, speak to their children about the raising of corn. In more recent times, we've come to a deeper understanding that our ancestors had a great knowledge base about agriculture. We have some surviving books from that time that we still look to but, in fact, the larger number of books that our people had developed were burned by early missionaries, and so we lost a great deal of knowledge that is unlikely to be recovered."
"The Pop-wuj teaches us that all people have their own culture and their own worldview and that all people of the world develop major crops that are a legacy to humanity. In that context, the indigenous peoples of the Americas developed corn as a major staple, the Asian peoples developed rice, the European peoples developed wheat, the African peoples lived from millet and sorghum."
"Crop cycle begins in January or February. The ceremonial priest and the family gather for an all night ceremony the night before the choosing of the field in order to connect with the natural world around the area—the spirits of the valley and the mountains—and in order to ask for protection for their crops so the winds and the rains will come at the right time, and foraging animals will leave the food that is destined for human beings."
"They request strength and protection for the being that is to be born, which is corn. They ask permission of the spirits on behalf of this being so that, as they disturb the natural vegetation of the place—they need to clear some land—they won't incur the wrath of the tree spirits and the other vegetation that they must disturb in order to plant. Then they burn the field which warms the earth, eliminates insect and other soil life that is destructive to the crop, and the ash left from the burning enriches the soil."
"Seed for planting is carefully chosen and comes from the thickest part of the ear. The whole community gathers to plant corn together, with planting sticks, hoes and machetes. The intent is to plant all in one day, regardless of the size of the field. At the end of the season, the harvesting is also a community-wide event."
"Eight days after storing the harvest, the family, by themselves, will go to the field again to gather anything that might have been left. It is considered disrespectful to leave ears, or even grains of corn in the field. This is done so that the connection that has been made is in no way disrupted—the spiritual connection to what they call the Heart of the Sky. It is seen as the need to make good on the request to the spirit to protect. If this is not done right—if there is waste of corn in the field—it is believed that the element of planting for that family begins to diminish and over the years the harvest will not be as good."
"This way of being for the people is based on the knowledge that corn is alive, the corn feels and it cries. Corn symbolizes the continuity and the importance of the cycle for the family—the maintenance of family and of the larger extended community. The abundance of corn brings happiness, prosperity and health."
References
Indian Corn of the Americas: Gift to the World. Northeast Indian Quarterly, vol. VI, #1&2, 1989; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Origin and Environmental Setting of Ancient Agriculture in the Lowlands of Mesoamerica. Pope, Kevin O., Science, vol. 292, issue #5520, 2001, AAAS.
An A-"Maize"-ing Story. Pope, Kevin. O., Calliope, vol. 14, issue #5, 2004, Cobblestone Publishing.
Amaizing Stories. Economist, vol. 327, issue #7810, 1993, Economist Newspaper, Ltd.
Corn's Slow Path to Stardom. Raloff, Janet, Science News, vol. 143, isuue #16, 1993, Science News.
A Conversation on Corn. Halberg, Boone, Seeds Of Change—1996 Catalog.
Risking Corn, Risking Culture. Capulalpam, World Watch. Nov/Dec 2002, vol. 15 issue #6, World Watch Institute.
Photo captions: 1) Rainbow Inca against the sky. 2) Rainbow Inca with red tassels shows genetic diversity. 3) Japanese Hulless Popcorn. 4) Oaxacan Green Dent. 5) Hopi Purple Flour Corn. 6) Supai Red Parching Corn. 7) True Gold Sweet Corn. 8) Rainbow Inca stand of corn. 9) Triple Paly Sweet Corn.
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