Corn, Indian corn, or maize is one of three grasses that account for almost half of all human calories consumed. The seed of these grasses are called cereals and each developed in a distinct part of the world: corn in the Americas, specifically Mexico/Guatemala (where its name is derived from the Arawak-Carib word mahiz, when Christopher Columbus first encountered the grain on the island of Cuba), and wheat and rice in the Old World. Corn was and still is the most important food plant for the indigenous people of the Americas. Its cultivation stretched from the Gaspé Peninsula of eastern Canada to Chile in South America. It is grown from sea level to elevations of ten thousand feet in the Andes.

Origin of Corn

Most of the corn grown in the developed world is from improved hybrid seed while subsistence farmers plant mostly open-pollinated farmer-selected varieties called...