![[Teosinte_and_Modern_Corn_Comparison_(3745571067).jpg]] [Maize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize), which we call corn, was developed by natives of what is now Southern Mexico beginning about 9,000 years ago. The Central Americans created the single-stem, large-eared maize plant we are familiar with, by very gradually improving a native grass called _teosinte_. Year after year farmers saved seeds from the best plants with the biggest seed heads. Eventually, after generations of patient improvement these seeds began to look less like grass and more like what we would recognize as ears of corn. This process of selective breeding may have taken centuries, and along the way the maize plants lost the ability to reproduce by themselves. Modern corn seeds are trapped on their ears, and most will never germinate unless they are removed by people and replanted. Today, maize is the world’s most important food crop. Corn feeds billions of people and domesticated animals and produces a wide range of materials for energy, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and other industries. ------ Next: [[1.12 - Rice]] Back: [[1.10 - Fertile Crescent]]