- Corn is a tall plant grass that has large ears with many seeds
or kernels. These seeds grow in rows on the larger ears and are
eaten as a vegetable. Corn is grown as food for both people and
animals.
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- Corn, also called maize, is a cereal grass related to wheat,
rice, oats, and barley. It is a plant whose food value and wide
variety of uses make it the most important crop grown in the
United States and one of the most important in the world. In order
of world grain production, corn ranks second after wheat and is
followed by third-ranking rice.
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- Indians living in what is now Mexico about 10,000 years ago,
first used corn gathered from wild plants as a food source. Near
5000 B.C., they learned how to grow corn themselves and it came to
be called Indian corn. Today the term usually refers to corn
varieties with multicolored kernels.
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- In the U.S. and most other developed countries where corn is
grown, farmers today grow hybrid corn almost exclusively. Hybrid
corn is developed through breeding to have exceptional vigor and
produce high yields. Varieties of corn can be raised in most
temperate (mild) and tropical areas of the world. Corn is raised
as source of food and food products for people, livestock feed,
and industrial products including ceramics, explosives,
construction materials, metal molds, paints, paper goods,
textiles, industrial alcohols, and ethanol.
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