Who Invented Corn?

Corn was always available in the wild. It is believed that corn was first domesticated sometime between 10000 BC and 5500BC. Nothing is known about the person who domesticated corn for the first time. The native Americans grew corn before the outer world discovered the Americas. The natives called their corn ‘mahiz’ and that is where the second name of corn comes from. The word ‘mahiz’ means ‘that which sustains us,’The meaning demonstrates how important corn was to the Native Americans. It is likely that those people could have used corn to brew beer before the arrival of the Spanish.

Christopher Columbus took some corn back to Spain and from there it first spread to the rest of the Europe and then to the entire world. The English and the Germans named the new edible plant ‘Indian corn’, whereas the Spanish sailors borrowed the American name and with time it was changed to ‘maize’.

The native Americans taught the early settlers not only the art of cultivating corn but also their popular dishes – corn pudding, corn cakes, corn soups etc, to name a few. Since then, corn is deeply ingrained into the American culture. Corn is so popular in the United States that sometimes it is referred to as the food that “exemplifies the Americans”. The corn is the largest crop in the United States. Both China and the United States are the two top producers of corn.