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.