Food historian Cynthia Clampitt pens the epic story of what happened
when Mesoamerican farmers bred a nondescript grass into a staff of life
so prolific, so protean, that it represents nothing less than one of
humankind's greatest achievements. Blending history with expert
reportage, she traces the disparate threads that have woven corn into
the fabric of our diet, politics, economy, science, and cuisine. At the
same time she explores its future as a source of energy and the
foundation of seemingly limitless green technologies. The result is a
bourbon-to-biofuels portrait of the astonishing plant that sustains the
world.