Before the encounter of Europeans with the “New World”, corn played a central role in the life and diet of Native Americans. Many rituals and religious beliefs revolved around corn. Even today, corn continues to be present in the lives and diets of all Americans. Corn touches us in ways we may not even realize. Most of us eat corn every day, whether in its natural form or in meat, soft drinks or sweets. From thousands of years to the present, corn has and continues to support human life. Corn and maize can be used interchangeably. Corn was the term used by the Tainos who welcomed Columbus to the Caribbean. Its literal meaning is “that which sustains life”. Corn quickly became part of the Spanish vocabulary and then spread to other European languages. The word corn is actually a generic term for grain used in Old English. American English adapted the word to refer exclusively to corn. This usage continues today. There are hundreds of varieties of corn, but there are only five basic families: flint, dent, popcorn, tender corn, and sweet corn. Flint corn was the preferred type in the northern states and was used in cornmeal that made dense breads and johnnycakes. It is a low-yielding corn and due to demand, dent corn is replacing its production. Dent corn gets its name from its honeycombed kernels. It is now the most widely grown commercial corn and produces the traditional starchy sweet cornmeal of the South. Popcorn is the one we all know. When heated in hot oil, its starchy inner core bursts through its shrinking outer skin. Tender corn is not grown on a commercial scale, but by specialists. This is the corn that was in the middle of paper...... microwave popcorn during commercial breaks on our favorite shows. Power is at your fingertips. Although corn has always been a part of the American diet, it has infiltrated areas of food and other products that seem unlikely to belong there. It can be modified to be present in both food and products not intended for human consumption. Corn can truly be considered the crop that built America. It certainly has many uses. Some might argue that it has too many uses. Works Cited: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Corn in human nutrition. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2011. Fussell, Betty. The history of corn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, INC., December 15, 2004. Wallace, Henry A. and William L. Brown. Revised Edition of Corn and Its First Fathers. Ames, Iowa: Iowa University Press, 2012.