Corn
There is a reason why corn [Zea mays] is the most-produced grain worldwide; it is involved in just about every aspect of our lives. Corn provides about 21 percent of human nutrition across the globe. On top of that, most of the corn grown in the U.S. and Canada is actually fed to animals, so it should be no surprise that corn is America’s number one field crop. There are many other non-culinary uses for the grain as well; it is a key ingredient in ethanol, cosmetics, ink, glue, laundry starch, medicines and fabrics, just to name a few. Native Americans, the original corn farmers, even wove the husks into clothing, baskets and toys. Corn is an essential ingredient in our diets and also in our world.
A Native American name for corn was “mahisi,” which means “that which sustains us.” (In fact, cultivating corn is responsible for turning some Native American tribes from nomadic to settled, agricultural societies). The early settlers transformed the word “mahisi” to “maize.” Later on, the name “corn” came from the generic English term used to denote small particles or particular grains (related to the word "kernel").
There are many different types of corn. The best-known version is Sweet Corn, the traditional summertime treat covered in butter and salt and eaten off the cob. Sweet Corn earned its name from its high sugar content and is generally only consumed by humans. Next is Dent Corn (also known as Field Corn), which is usually fed to livestock and used to make industrial products. The third kind is Flint Corn, which is also known as the decorative Indian Corn that comes in a range of colors and is often symbolic of fall and Thanksgiving. Flint Corn is primarily grown in Central and South America. It is a sub variety of Flint Corn that we use to make popcorn [Zea mays everta].
The origin of corn was something of a mystery for many years, because it does not grow wild anywhere on the planet. Recently though, teamwork by botanists, geneticists and archeologists managed to identify a Mexican grass called teosinte as the wild ancestor of maize. Teosinte is skinny with only a dozen kernels wrapped inside a stone-hard casing, so it at first seemed as though it was more similar to rice rather than corn. But Dr. George W. Beadle, winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize, did studies crossing the two plants and determined that just four or five genes controlled the major differences between maize and teosinte. Botanists used DNA typing, which is exactly the same technology used for paternity tests, to determine where maize came from. The tests showed that all maize was genetically most similar to a teosinte type from the tropical Central Balsas River Valley in Mexico, and the botanists were able to estimate the domestication occurred about 9,000 years ago.