Geographical Features Of Corn

Geographical Features of Corn: Outline

Christian Urquidez

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Author Note

Geographical Features of Corn: Outline

Introduction

Corn is a type of cereal grain that was initially discovered and domesticated in Mexico

A popular staple food in the US for human and animal consumption.

Total production surpassing rice or wheat

An interesting topic because a plant that did not naturally exist, and depended on human protection and plantation became an important staple food for humans throughout

Body

Regions

Developed 7000 years ago by inhabitants of Central Mexico

Teosinte wild grass used to develop the plant CITATION Smi04 \l 1033 (Smith, 2004).

Ripened in summers and eaten fresh by people by boiling, roasting or popcorn. Later generations crushed it into cornmeal to make tortillas and tacos CITATION Pru16 \l 1033 (Pruit, 2016).

Cultural Landscape

Indians in South and North America depended on maize for their survival

Major part of diet and cultural staple food of natives when Europeans contacted natives living in America CITATION And18 \l 1033 (Shanahan, 2018).

Diffusion

Frost in cold areas destroyed plant before riping. Plant was adapted to norther climate through shortening its growing season CITATION But18 \l 1033 (Butler, Mueller, & Huybers, 2018).

Advances in agriculture led to increased production and diffused through trade.

Suitable temperature zones found to produce better crop yield, led to diffusion CITATION But18 \l 1033 (Butler, Mueller, & Huybers, 2018).

Distance Decay

From Mexico, corn spread into southwestern and northern U.S. as well in South Americas along with coast of Peru.

Emigration of native-Indian people towards the north, 1000 years ago brought it to current day North America CITATION And18 \l 1033 (Shanahan, 2018).

Traders to Europe brought Mexican corn mainly as cow feed. In West Africa, it was sold to farmers, became staple food in West Africa by 1540 CITATION Pru16 \l 1033 (Pruit, 2016).

Conclusion

High consumption in U.S. today, with a wide variety of corn based products, such as corn syrup, cornbread, tacos, Froot Loops, etc.

World production surpassing one billion tons annually in 2014, in which U.S. is major producer CITATION Ris18 \l 1033 (Prasad, et al., 2018).

Fertile soils and sandy regions, shallow and abundant groundwater helps farmers control soil moisture, through subsurface drainage and irrigation to maximize yields CITATION Ris18 \l 1033 (Prasad, et al., 2018)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Butler, E. E., Mueller, N. D., & Huybers, P. (2018). Peculiarly pleasant weather for US maize. University of California, 115 (47), pp. 11935-11940. Berkeley, CA. doi:10.1073/pnas.1808035115

Prasad, R., Gunn, S. K., Rotz, C. A., Karsten, H., Roth, G., Buda, A., & Stoner, A. M. (2018). Projected climate and agronomic implications for corn production in the Northeastern United States. PLoS One, 13(6), e0198623. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198623

Pruit, J. D. (2016). A Brief History of Corn: Looking Back to Move Forward. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=planthealthdoc

Shanahan, A. (2018). History of Corn. Retrieved January 6, 2019, from NDSU: https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/chiwonlee/plsc211/student%20papers/articles11/A.Shanahan1/History.html

Smith, C. W. (2004). Corn: origin, history, technology, and production. New York: John Wiley & Sons.