Exploring the history and importance of corn worldwide, Arturo
Warman traces its development from a New World food of poor and
despised peoples into a commodity that plays a major role in the
modern global economy.
The book, first published in Mexico in 1988, combines approaches
from anthropology, social history, and political economy to tell
the story of corn, a "botanical bastard" of unclear origins that
cannot reseed itself and is instead dependent on agriculture for
propagation. Beginning in the Americas, Warman depicts corn as
colonizer. Disparaged by the conquistadors, this Native American
staple was embraced by the destitute of the Old World. In time,
corn spread across the globe as a prodigious food source for both
humans and livestock. Warman also reveals corn's role in nourishing
the African slave trade.
Through the history of one plant with enormous economic
importance, Warman investigates large-scale social and economic
processes, looking at the role of foodstuffs in the competition
between nations and the perpetuation of inequalities between rich
and poor states in the world market. Praising corn's almost
unlimited potential for future use as an intensified source of
starch, sugar, and alcohol, Warman also comments on some of the
problems he foresees for large-scale, technology-dependent monocrop
agriculture
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