Corn Group Project

Corn has a long history and has had significant impacts on society. It originated in western Mexico and Guatemala and has evolved over time through human selection. Mexico has a long-standing tradition of consuming corn, and the country has imported corn from the US for many years. Corn production in Latin American countries like Costa Rica and Guatemala has faced challenges due to rising costs, reduced harvests, and competition from imported corn. The expansion of corn farming in Latin America has led to deforestation and environmental issues. The price of corn has also had economic implications for producers in rural Mexico. The distinction between corn and maize has sociocultural significance, and genetically modified corn has been a controversial topic. Corn holds cultural significance in Mexico and has been a symbol of the nation's identity. The trade of genetically modified corn has led to disputes between the US and Mexico. Before this project, have you guys ever thought of corn? I can't say I have, but I did learn a couple of things that changed the way I think about food and agriculture, especially corn. Me neither, but after doing all this research, I definitely have a better understanding and awareness of the impacts that corn has had on society as a whole and how it has evolved over the many, many years that it has been around. The origin of corn has conflicting accounts according to Chapter 1.1 of Corn Origin History, Technology, and Production. Written in 2004, the origin of corn can be traced to western Mexico and Guatemala, where various species of corn are thought to be native. I found an article by George Beadle, a professor at Harvard University, that theorizes that modern corn is the descendant of Teosinte, which is a flowering plant found in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, and that this plant was transformed by human selection into what we have today. One of the origins of maize corn is the Balsas River Valley and spread about in Latin America. I found a short magazine article, Corn in Mexico, published in 1893, that details Mexico's consumption of corn in America. According to it, Mexico's consumption of maize increased in part as a result of severe crop failure caused by prolonged drought in 1891 and 1892. Although maize was and continues to be a staple food in Mexican diets, the per capita consumption of the crop was less than 7 bushels or around 392 pounds per person per year according to the data from 1880. In 1892, the United States exported a substantial amount of corn to Mexico, valued around 5.6 million or approximately 240 million in today's money on the French market. It was estimated that over 11 million bushels, 616 million pounds of American corn worth 10 million or 400 million today, were received in Mexico during a 14 month period. This equated to about 1 bushel, 56 pounds per capita of the Mexican population and represented a significant portion of both Mexican and U.S. corn production. This is interesting to read about considering how Mexico continues to import corn from the U.S. So this magazine article illustrates how the consumption of American corn is not new. One of the first times corn became more well known was after Christopher Columbus had some emissaries go to Cuba and they ended up discovering maize while they were there. After that, Christopher Columbus ended up going and bringing maize back to Europe, which ended up spreading all across Europe and gaining massive popularity. According to Akadi Perez, Pablo Marisol Velazquez-Alazar, and Guillermo Sabina Luzama-Gaitan and Global Value Chains in Latin America, small scale producers of cash crops such as corn and maize can often find difficulty connecting internationally in an economic sense. This is influenced by both existing agricultural business and governmental bodies in Latin America. There is data to support that domestic corn producers are also being harmed by imported corn. Corn production in Costa Rica from 2017 to 2018 totaled just over 5,800 tons, down roughly 6,700 tons from 2012 to 2013, a 54% decline in domestic corn production. In 2018, over 17,000 tons of corn were imported to Costa Rica, largely due to demand for corn remaining high while domestic production remains low. Much of the decline in corn production can be attributed to rising production costs, reduced harvest amounts, thin profit margin, which all force corn demand to be satisfied by imports. Solutions proposed by the authors to fix this issue include subsidizing corn production, improving technology to increase efficiency, and creating more competition for domestic corn producers. Corn importation is also high in Guatemala, with 50% of total corn produced within the country and the rest imported. This is due to a report completed by the USDA on Guatemalan corn commodity. The report also states that much of Guatemala's corn crop is Mexican contraband corn smuggled into Guatemala, which raises consumption rates but also threatens local production. That same report states corn accounts for 40% of agricultural land use in Guatemala, produced from commercial and non-commercial systems, 42% and 58% respectively. Commercial farms produce up to three harvests per year, and a total land area of 510 hectares devoted to corn production. Non-commercial farms are largely used as sustenance farms, and often produce lower yields when compared to commercial farms, who rely on fertilizers, machines for harvesting, and genetically modified corn species. Corn production has been relatively stagnant in Guatemala over the past 10 years, but the statistics on this are believed to be overestimated. In a different report by the FAS Washington, there was significant evidence of reduced plant area and overall crop production, largely due to diverse corn prices, diversification of crops on land, environmental factors including drought, and contraband corn entering from Mexico. The reports say that land area of corn planted went down from 880,000 hectares in 2016 to 872,000 hectares in 2018. Non-commercial farming is heavily reliant on manual labor for production, relies on crop rotation, and relies entirely on weather conditions to determine production yields. Through reading a primary source written by several different editors published in the National Academy of Sciences titled, Tropical Forests Were the Primary Sources of New Agricultural Land in the 1980 and 1990, I was able to find out that the expansion of farmlands in Latin America, of which a significant portion are being used for corn and maize crops, are leading to deforestation, climate change, and displacement of plant and animal life. The article details how a vast majority of the new farmland was coming from forest and disturbed forests. While Central America is less impacted by expansion of corn and maize, South America has been greatly impacted by the expansion of these crops. The increased demand of corn and its ability to provide a livelihood for many poses an ethical issue as it also leads to a variety of environmental issues. Additionally, after reading an article in Science Direct by George Dyer and Jay Taylor titled The Corn Price Surge Impacts on Rural Mexico, I was able to discover that many corn producers in rural Mexico have been disincentivized to expand their lands due to increases on corn and corn production prices. As farmland used for corn production only expanded by 5.7% in 2008, which has helped to mitigate environmental issues and deforestation. However, corn prices have increased, leading to various other issues, particularly in the economic sector, for growers and buyers. Wages have increased as have corn rents, which increases the opportunity cost of agricultural land. In Baker's 2017 book, Corn Meets Maize, she presents this idea of an agricultural dichotomy between corn and maize. She has this interesting way of presenting maize and corn as separate commodities with different sociocultural dynamics. Especially with the enforcement of NAFTA in 1994, the divide between corn and maize has been felt by not only the consumers and their diets, but by the small-scale producers of the Mexican campesinos. In Priscilla's book, Grand Casino Latina, she outlines how corn became a staple in the Mexican diet. Corn became a staple of the Mexican diet because it was easy to grow in abundance and the people of the region had been cultivating it for generations, molding it into the perfect crop. Over time, people were able to develop the crop into a sustainable resource of food. Corn was so influential to society that some indigenous groups even referred to it as corn mother, a goddess who created agriculture. Clearly, corn had become important to these people. As we've already touched on, contraband corn is a large issue in many countries and poses an economic risk to the country and personal risk to the producers. Because of this, consumers are faced with the dilemma of consuming the smuggled products or only consuming Guatemalan-cultivated corn products. According to the USDA report, an estimated 30% of food products in Guatemala come from contraband. The issue of agrodiversity at an international, national, and local level is highlighted by the issue of genetically modified, or GM, seeds and their impact, especially for local campesinos. According to Baker, the controversies surrounding genetically modified products, such as corn, grew even more intense when transgene flow from GM corn to maize land races, that is, domesticated or locally adopted maize grown using traditional agricultural methods was discovered in Oaxaca, Mexico. The gravity of GM corn is made apparent by Zambia's rejection of thousands of tons of genetically modified corn donated by the U.S. in 2002. The government was concerned that planting genetically modified crops might jeopardize trade with the EU, as they maintained a ban on growing genetically modified corn. Furthermore, EU environmental experts in 2007 acknowledged GM corn may cause environmental risks. Food products containing GM ingredients were also required to be clearly labeled and traceable under regulations. Due to potential impacts on the environment and trade, this underscores the issues and concerns surrounding the consumption and trading of genetically modified corn. Taking a step back from an international perspective, the GM corn debate is central to Mexican history, culture, and politics. Maize is symbolic to Mexico. As Spinney explains in her 2011 journal, The Struggle for Maize, it went from having negative connotations due to early links with indigenous people and subsistence cultivation to becoming a symbol of a hybrid nation. In David Lauder's article over the U.S. and Mexico trade dispute, he describes how the trade dispute came about and what might happen if the countries cannot settle a disagreement. He makes it clear that the United States and Mexico are in a trade dispute over genetically modified corn produced by the United States. The Mexican government does not want to import the corn that is produced by the U.S. because they feel it has a health risk that they do not want to expose to their citizens. As of today, Mexico purchases roughly $5 billion worth of U.S. GM corn yearly, however it is mainly for livestock feed. The Mexican government believes that the corn has adverse health effects on its livestock, which could lead to health risks for their people. The Mexican government seems to be unwavering in their decision to stop buying U.S. corn for the foreseeable future. The U.S. believes that this is a violation of the trade agreements in North America and if the situation does not dissolve, it could lead to a North American trade war. The dispute over the morality of genetically modified corn is not limited to the U.S. and Mexico. Guatemala's Green Revolution is also a conversation of controversy surrounding the topic. According to the journal article, Selling Guatemala's Green Revolution, the Green Revolution in Guatemala caused rural conflicts and economic inequality as well as a conflict between industrial and non-industrial farms. The introduction of heavy use of pesticides, fertilizers, and GM corn was not welcomed by all producers and brought on controversy for environmental and health risks. According to the article, small-scale farms were able to increase their crop yields through the use of this technology, but the prices soon overtook the success. For the large industrial farms, cost was not as large of an issue as they continued to prosper with the continued use of Green Revolution technology. Another current problem that corn is facing is the incoming effects of climate change and the drastic impact that it could have on major corn-producing areas like Northeast Brazil. According to Rodrigo de Oliveira Andrade, the maize yield in these areas could fall by up to 60%, which is a very scary number considering how many people in the region make a living and survive off of corn production. In a region that already struggles with water, this would be extremely harmful. This doesn't only affect Northeast Brazil as the climatic effects would also have drastic effects on all areas of corn agriculture as a whole. Although we as consumers don't realize it, the things we buy and consume like food are more than a means to survive. If ethical consumption is important to you as a consumer, you can buy locally, support non-GMO brands, advocate for labeling, engage with local organizations, participate in consumer movements, advocate for policy change, and most importantly, stay informed.