The Civilization Of Corn In America

Main Point # 1 - Corn’s versatility, global demand, and profit margin has led the over grown grass to emerge as America’s number one crop. The USDA evaluated corn’s crop value to be $76.9 billion in 2011, making it a huge contributor to the American economic system (National Corn Growers Association, 2017). Research gathered by Duke University found that the U.S. produced 40% of the world’s supply, 10% of which comes from the small town of Constantine, Michigan while an additional 10% is produced from the surrounding areas (“U.S and Employment,” 2015; Motz, T., 2016). These spikes in corn’s global demand have created an opportunity for farmers and mid-western field workers to become involved in the growing and profitable industry.

Many alterations have been applied to the area that corn is grown in. The main biome that corn is grown would be grasslands. Grasslands are an extremely important biome for producing food, it was shown that approximately 90% of the food produced today contains at least one of the fifteen species that are grown in grasslands. Unfortunately, for there to be enough space for corn to be grown and harvested, native grasses must be cleared, therefore having a devastating impact on the biome. Corn is known to be the most thirsty crop to be grown, taking up almost 7,000 to 8,000 gallons of water, draining countries, that don't receive as much rain, of their groundwater. Another impact on the environment of corn production would be the excessive use of fertilizers, this is due to the little nutrients returned back to the soil. As corn is mainly used for consumption, very little plant

We are all made of corn. Take a strand of your hair. A recent study proved that if you are like the average American consumer today, your hair is 69% made of corn carbon. This is in contrast to the 5% of corn carbon that is in the hair of Europeans. Americans use more corn in their diet than anyone else, and the corn content of the American diet is partially responsible for our country’s widespread obesity and the prevalence of diabetes. America’s over-production of corn has serious consequences for our health and for our environment.

The history of corn can be dated back to the beginning of time, but the use and value of corn had been unnoticed until it was introduce by the Native Americans. Where corn had seemed to be a big part of their everyday life from, being in myths, legends, and for a huge portion of their diet corn was an essential component. "when the Europeans had touched base to the New World during the late fifteenth century, the Native Americans had introduced corn what they had called maize to the Europeans .This crop was then later on grown and adapted from Canada to southern South America very quickly, which then began to form the new basis of the New World civilization" (Leventin & McManhon, 2012). The way corn has been changing and revolutionizing throughout time has been both fascinating and drastic. Rather than conventional corn being grown, it is genetically modified corn that have been dominating today 's crop industry and farming but the question remains as to how the various types of GMO corn has influenced the way it is grown and used and what its ramification are.

Native Americans started the development of maize. In 1491 Mann says, “Indians developed an extraordinary number of maize varieties for different growing conditions, which meant that the crop could and did spread throughout the planet”(pg17). With the spread of maize the Indians caused several

Corn is not the ideal nutritious food. It wreaks havoc on the animal;s' digestive system and gets turned into sweeteners that makes people obese, aside from giving us an unhealthy diet. In other words, the industrial food chain that American man is sustained on is largely based on corn, whether in its direct form, fed to livestock, or processed into chemicals such as glucose, and the cheapest forms of these are high-fructose corn syrup and ethanol. The former, particularly, through a combination of biological, cultural, and political factors, appears in the cheapest and most common of foods that constitute the American diet. It is the ingredient that results in obesity, and, since it appears in the cheapest products, the ingredients that more poor, than wealthier individuals, consume.

Chapter one of The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan follows corn on its journey from acting as the primary crop of the Native Americans all the way to its introduction into the industrial setting. Pollan makes it explicitly clear that corn is in everything. Behind all the chemicals listed in the “ingredients” section on a product, consumers will find corn. Corn even plays a role in our chemical makeup. Because of corn’s ability to intake more carbon than most other plants, it does not have a preference over the carbon isotopes it consumes. By looking at the carbon isotope ratios in humans, we can determine how much corn one has eaten. Pollan states that corn’s variability is what makes it such an important crop. The European settlers

However, it had a huge impact on the lives both early “Ohio” civilizations, as well as later Ohioans who arrived long after the first European settlers. For the early civilizations, corn was a way to feed as many people as possible, using a smaller amount of farmland. While there were negative consequences of the use of corn for these people, the ability to feed more people, as well as transforming the social structure of these civilizations through specialization, outweighed the negative consequences. After the arrival of the Europeans, corn became the driving force of the Ohio economy. Places like the Miami Valley became places of diversity and economic and technological prominence through the leveraging of corn into other industries. For this reason, corn was a transformative introduction into the Ohio area, creating a civilizations characterized by progressive technological and social

The main argument in this article is how it explains we as society have evolved with corn and some people think we do not need it or have not evolved. The author wants to show us how crops can grow everywhere and that we the people should

In 1491, the Americas was an entire different land before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. Vast colonies of natives lived all over the Americas. These early people created vast civilizations based on what was available to them. At this time, corn was the main crop. Corn was the bases for many civilizations as they were able to grow corn to sustain the needs of each civilization. Other regions like in South America, grew other crops that helped them flourish like potatoes. Fish was available to many but it was not a requirement because at this time they could live without this food source. Prior to the arrival of Columbus, the land was untamed and natural. Civilizations lived off crops that they could farm and hunt the wild game native to their

Maize is a wild plant and was discovered by Indians. It belongs to the same grass family as barley, rye, rice, wheat, and oats. When the Pilgrims landed in North America in 1620, the Indians gave them maize to eat. They also showed the Pilgrims how to grow maize. The Pilgrims called the maize “corn”, which mean grains and Americans still call it corn today. The word corn has a different meaning depending on what country you are in. According to the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University, corn in England means wheat and in Scotland and Ireland, it means barley or oats (www.agron.iastate.edu).   By drawing on documents and reports from the Pre Columbian American era, I plan to discuss how corn was discovered, the importance of it, and how it was used by Pre Columbian Americans.

Now corn is just as important to the Native American nation as it was thousands of years ago from its original use as food, Corn bow is used in 4,000 different products. It’s cheap, renewable and scientists are still finding new used for it to this day. When planted corn it is done in what is called #the three sisters. This means it was planted with beans and corns. This without going to much in detail allows each different plant to gains thing for the

Corn is the biggest conquer crop that expands and grown over the years, which is important to the modern day

Corn is a vegetable I consider a gift and so do Native Americans. It’s known and appreciated around the world as a multipurpose staple. Corn as we know it today was first founded as a wild grass called Teosinte, it is believed to be over 80,000 years old, first discovered and cultivated by the Inca’s, and the Mayans almost 5,000 years ago. Scientist are still finding corn pollen in the in the lakes beneath Mexico City. Corn was often planted with Squash and Beans and was lovingly nicknamed the Three Sister’s because they protected each other through the way they grew in similitude and benefited each other space, and nutritional levels they were helpful against the climates processes that would be detrimental to each of them. While the Native Americans view corn as a gift

The demand for corn has greatly increased because of its many new found uses but mainly because it has been discovered that corn can be use as an alternate energy source. This great demand for corn has increased many area of farming and production of corn here and other countries such as Mexico and South America. This great demand has lead to an increase in farmers who are willing to cash in on these cash crops and try to earn a few quick dollars because of the great demand for it. In 2007 Corn farmer saw record profits because famer where getting twice as much for corn as they did in previous years. The same trend continued but farmers dealt with so many obstacle such as weather, bugs and lack of