Corn Domestication Essay Example

📌Category: Business, Farming
📌Words: 625
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 13 June 2022

The very common grain, corn, is something that we humans have not only consumed for thousands of years, but also have produced a substantial amount of. With corn being the primary U.S. feed grain, it is not only an essential part of our diets, but we also rely on it as the main energy ingredient in livestock feed. This gran takes up around 90 million acres of land throughout the U.S. making it the most commonly grown crop. With that being said, the conditions that corn has grown in has changed dramatically since corn was first domesticated 10,000 years ago. Due to changes in both climate and environment, humans in our society have been forced to adapt to the needs of corn in order to continue the mass production of this grain. 

The definition of the domestication of food is, the process of adapting wild plants for human use. Around 10,000 years ago, the native people in southern Mexico did that exact thing, to the commonly grown grain, corn. Although corn has been around for thousands of years, it has not always been the way it looks today. Before domestication, the grain was originally referred to as maize. Not only was the name different from todays, but both the growing of the corn and the corn itself have changed remarkably. The people from southern Mexico began growing their corn from a tall, skinny plant called teosinte grass. The corn developed from this grass was much smaller and did not provide much corn from each cob. With corn initially being a wild teosinte grass, providing a negligible amount of food, humans have worked hard to transform it into the reliable, rich source of food that it is today. 

Corn started as a non reliable food source, being produced in very little quantities, meaning there was lots of work to be done during domestication. Once corn was domesticated, both its physical and genetic characteristics changed substantially. Corn grew from a long, tall, thicker grass, meaning it was sturdier to grow a bigger cob of corn. Since corn was domesticated, humans were able to generate multiple different types of corn. Each one had its own unique, distinctive flavor and a slightly distinct physical appearance. Some of these types being, sweet corn, dent corn, and flint corn. Now that corn is produced in much larger quantities than before, we are able to use it in so many different ways. Livestock feed, sweeteners, cereal, and even some cosmetics contain corn in some form. Even though we may not see it, corn is used in over 4,000 different products just in our grocery store today. Since we utilize corn so much, it is important to continue the mass growth and production of it. Without domestication thousands of years ago, we might not have all the ingredients and abilities we do today. 

The domestication of corn was not an easy task, but with lots of work and time, it was managed to be done. During domestication, the climate began to change and the environment differed. The southern Mexico natives still managed to domesticate corn so that it could be an essential source for the thousands of years to come. This reminds me of the question, “Why are societies the way they are?” I feel our society is the way it is because we had to learn to adapt to the needs of corn during the change in climate and environment. Corn couldn't survive in every temperature, so they had to learn how to preserve the corn during the cold months. Eventually, we learned all the needs of corn, making it easier to maintain and keep control of. 

Clearly, we have experienced significant evolution, as it is related to the extremely important grain, corn. Corn went from an undependable, varying grain which we used for a confined range of uses, to one of the most important sources to our success. Now that corn has been fully domesticated, we are able to take advantage of the advances and use this grain in a nearly unlimited capacity.

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