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Solving the Maize: A Big History of Food Complexity
Solving the Maize: A Big History of Food Complexity
How might one plant sustain us in the future? Journey through the Big History of maize to find out.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
How did maize transform societies in the Americas?
How did maize transform societies in Afro-Eurasia?
How has maize/corn become an essential crop in our world today?
How might maize/corn help sustain food production in an era of climate change?
What does Michael Blake mean when he says, “Humans grow maize and maize grows humans”?
: Feeding ourselves has never been so complex. Thanks to globalization,
: the food we eat often comes from, or is dependent on, far away places. The webs
: of finance and shipping that connect our global food system are incredibly complex.
: Unfortunately, the more complex the system gets, the more fragile it becomes.
: All this complexity might seem very recent, but it's the product of a long history of how
: humans learn to feed themselves To understand that history,
: and to search for answers to the challenges we face today and will encounter tomorrow,
: let's explore the big history of one of the world's most important grains: maize.
: For over 10,000 years, maize has been a key factor in our population growth. Everywhere
: it spread, it brought new levels of complexity to human societies.
: This odd looking grass is called teosinte, also known as the Mother of Corn. About 10,000 years
: ago, people living in Southern Mexico gradually began developing this crop, artificially selecting
: certain properties that would eventually lead to the cultivation of maize as we know it today.
: As these Mesoamerican communities moved and interacted with others, they formed networks
: of exchange that slowly spread domesticated maize across South and North America.
: Over the course of thousands of years, Indigenous societies adapted the plant
: to suit their environments, selecting varieties that could grow in wetter or drier conditions or
: at higher altitudes. In every society it touched, maize transformed the ways that people lived and
: the food they ate, sparking agricultural revolutions from Argentina to Canada.
: As people stored, distributed, and traded goods, they transformed into more complex
: societies with huge cities, complex belief systems, monumental architecture, and new
: social complexity. But that complexity meant that, in some ways, societies grew more fragile,
: as well. A climate shift or drought could cause large agricultural societies to collapse,
: sending thousands into crisis and famine. In a global process known as the Colombian
: Exchange, Europeans transported maize across oceans where new societies adopted
: and adapted the crop to suit their needs. One of the keys to its spread was maize’s
: incredible adaptability. It thrived in the warmer climates of Southern Europe,
: Western Africa, and Southern Asia. In the 16th century, maize became a staple
: crop in the rain forests of Africa's interior. This new source of food sparked a population boom
: Maize also grows in dry and mountainous
: where wheat and rice could not. The introduction of maize to China transformed the region:
: China's population quadrupled between the 17th and 19th centuries thanks to maize. In the
: province of Sichuan alone, the population rose from 9 million to 24 million as maize
: increased the available farmland by 60 percent. As maize spread to new places, millions
: of people began to rely on it, which generated complex, new relationships.
: However, the new connections in larger systems meant that a change in one place,
: like poor harvest due to a drought, could affect millions living in other places.
: Maize is a key ingredient of complexity in the human past, but it continues to add complexity
: to our world today. We grow more maize than any other grain and we grow it everywhere. Of the
: top 30 corn producing nations in the world, only six are in the Americas and 11 are in Africa.
: In 2021, humanity grew 1.2 billion tons of maize globally. That number is expected to increase.
: Why? Because there's corn in everything. Of course we use it for food, but in the world's largest
: maize grower, the United States, we only use about 10 percent of the corn we grow for food.
: About 45 percent we feed the livestock and corn is also used in biofuels and ethanol fuel,
: it’s used to make batteries, bourbon, diapers, cough syrup, matches, textiles,
: adhesives and all sorts of plastics. As the inclusion of maize and varied
: products has increased in complexity, so has its fragility. Therefore, if there is a disruption in
: the supply of maize, dozens of industries in hundreds of countries would falter,
: Maize has inserted itself into every facet of our lives. Any vision of the human future will involve
: maize. As we seek to build more resilient systems, maize offers many solutions and challenges:
: it can grow in many environments, it is nearly unrivaled in the amount of calories it can
: produce per acre. As our populations grow and our climates change, maize will continue to be
: a key ingredient in feeding our species. Scientists have genetically modified corn
: varieties to be more drought tolerant, so as droughts become more prevalent in
: some regions of the world, maize might prevent climate change-induced famine.
: On the other hand, corn is not immune from a variety of diseases and pests that can
: affect the crop at various stages of the planting and growing process.
: As climate change results in more stress on the environment, corn could be negatively impacted.
: In addition, the production and processing of maize, especially into high ethanol gasoline,
: emits a lot of carbon into our atmosphere, which increases the effects of climate change.
: Our food systems today are incredibly complex and fragile, and corn is a big part of the long
: history that brought us here. The decisions we make today about how we grow and use corn will be
: crucial to our future as a species as we strive to feed ourselves and save our world from crises
: of war, disease, and climate change. Few plants have shaped human
: history as maize has. In the words of anthropologist
: Michael Blake, "By being genetically flexible, maize has persuaded humans to move its seed
: around the globe faster and farther than any other plant in history... our global