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Corn: America's Renewable Resource
One hundred years ago, starch was basically the only product coming from corn
refining -- the rest of the kernel was thrown away. Today, there are uses for
every part of the kernel and even the water in which it is processed.
There are more than 3,500 different uses for corn products and more uses
are being found each day. Many of the new products, like paints, are more
environmentally-friendly than their petroleum counterparts.
Corn and its byproducts can be used to make paint, dyes, laundry detergent,
packing peanuts, disposable flatware, plates, diapers, milk jugs, razors, golf
tees, road deicer, photographic films, adhesives, batteries, degradable
plastics, dyes, plywood, antibiotics, chewing gum, shoe polish, paper, soft
drinks and juices, cereal, licorice, peanut butter, pickles, catsup,
marshmallows, cooking oil, margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing, shortening,
soups, printing inks, soaps, motor fuel additives, alcoholic beverages,
industrial alcohol, livestock and poultry feeds, pet food, amino acids, and much
more!
Top Ten Facts About Corn:
- Corn is produced on every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica.
- Grits are small broken grains of corn. They were first produced by Native Americans
centuries ago.
- Before Christopher Columbus's voyage to North America, corn was grown only by the
Indians of North, Central and South America.
- Petrified corn cobs that are over 5000 years old have been found in ancient Indian
villages in the Western hemisphere.
- When Columbus's ships landed in what is now the West Indies, he traded with the
Indians and took corn home with him to Spain.
- The Indian name for corn was MA-HIZ which the early settlers began to call maize.
- The Indians of North America helped save the settlers from starvation during their
first winter in America by providing them with corn to eat. After that first
hard winter, the settlers were taught by the Indians how to grow corn by
planting corn kernels with small fish for fertilizer.
- The Indians also shared their methods of preparing corn with the settlers. This
included corn bread, corn pudding, corn soup and fried corn cakes.
- Corn was so valuable in the days of the early settlers that it was used as money and
traded for meat and furs.
- Corn is completely domesticated, it cannot exist as a wild plant.
Back to Plant It!
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