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.