My Corn History Essay

Corn cultivation reached other parts of North America later on. The production of maize, beans, and squash, reached the southeastern region of North America at about A.D. 1000. These plants made "three-sister" farming possible.

Page makes this clear repeatedly throughout his second chapter. Near the end of the chapter, he notes that maize, though widely available to most populations, was not cultivated in a manner that largely effected human dietary patterns for nearly five hundred

Corn was a mainstay in the early American civilizations. They created a hardy and diverse food. It fed millions and people and was able to be used in a multitude of ways. 2. There was a change of treatment of woman when the religious belief system changed.

Before this famous exchange old World crops such as rice, wheat, and barley had never traveled to the New World; crops of the New World including maize, sweet potatoes, and manioc had never been to Afro-Eurasia. The exchange of crops had major consequences for the history of the world. Historian Alfred Crosby said, “The coming together of the continents was a prerequisite for the population explosion of the past two centuries, and certainly played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. The transfer across the ocean of the staple food crops of the Old and New Worlds made possible the former.” Plants that were formerly unknown in the Old World like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and maize expanded supply of agriculture and ensued in more nutritional foods.

So how much corn is in a typical meal? Many families’ orders look similar to Pollan’s order, and in his order, there is a whopping 3 ½ pounds of corn! Instead of most of the calories being from bread, potatoes, and meat, they are from corn. The dozens of menu items look like they have a bounty of ingredients, but a great number are made from one ingredient: corn. While it might seem that this enormous consumption of corn is bad, it all depends on the individual's life.

Feeding animals, corn is not healthy for anybody, this process only affects the animal's ability to grow at their own pace. In Northern America, one particular Hispanic family tree, 70% of their family members are affected with both type one and type two diabetes, which can be associated with corn. A Hispanic family member changed the way he ate by becoming vegan. One of his main reasons was to stay healthy which meant cutting corn out of his diet.

Productivity of chilies, tomatoes, avocados, and squash didn’t even reach their modern day form until 5000 B.C. Maize was domesticated in 1500 B.C.; corn could be produced at large and stored for long periods of time. Plants such as these allowed populations to grow and cities fall. Pilcher ends his introduction with the siege of Tenochtitlan. Fernando Cortes arrived in March of 1521, smallpox had taken over and Tenochtitlan’s food was cut

Wheat, oats, and barely are all new foods brought to the Americas which also had weeds in between the seeds which displaced native flora and fauna.

  Because the potato is a tuber, and therefor grows under-ground, it could be cultivated in the inhospitable lands of northern Europe and Asia.   It quickly became the food of soldiers, industrial workers,

In 1621 the Indians taught the pilgrims how to plant and grow crops so they wouldn’t starve. After the growing came the harvesting, it was a success. They had finally done it and would not starve through the winter. The feast or thanksgiving is all about how the pilgrims had their first successful corn harvest and had plenty of food to gather and share. They shared this feast with the Indians and their leader Massasoit.

Most people do not realize how many things are made from corn products and Pollan does a great job of breaking down what types of products contain corn. It is obvious that Pollan has a sort of admiration for corn, it’s hardiness, it’s versatility, but at the same time he understands that total dependence on one crop can be dangerous. However, the thesis of the essay is not really corn, but rather the fertilizer we use to grow it, specifically nitrogen right products such as ammonium nitrate. Pollen’s essay is a really interesting look at the history of how nitrogen-based fertilizers came to be so predominant in America and around the world. He discusses both their benefits and incredible dangers, such as the runoff pollution which boosts growth of algae causing the death of ocean life (903).

We usually don’t recognize the corn, due to companies putting corn in food coloring, flavoring etc. However, in The Omnivore’s Dilemma Todd Dawson says, “We look like corn chips with legs”(22.) This proves we are so clueless on how much corn we

The Columbian Exchange between the new world and the old world significantly change people’s lives. After 1492, Europeans brought in horses to America which changes the nomadic Native American groups’ living from riding on buffalos to horses. This interchange also change the diet of the rest of the world with foods such as corns (maize), potatoes which are major diet for European nowadays. 
Besides all the animals from old world to the new world, Spanish also brought in the diseases that Native Americans were not immune of, such as smallpox which led to a large amount of Native Americans’ deaths.

Corn was associated with indians and therefore seen as inferior while wheat associated with europeans was considered superior. This cultural struggle was encompassed by the tortilla discourse. While some mexicans were adapting to some european ways, substituting corn for wheat was the hardest for Mexicans. The main reason Europeans launched this discourse was in order to create a wheat market in the country and put the rural workers into the market economy. Over time the discourse achieved its goal.

The principle difference between normal and sugary-1 maize is that latter accumulate highly branched, water soluble form of polysaccharide known as phytoglycogen (Morris and Morris, 1939). In comparison to normal kernels, sugary-1 kernels have lesser dry weight,