No Corn, No Country

Photo by Liz Birnbaum, The Curated Feast

Corn is at the center of our country.

This mono-cropped, GMO industrial commodity was originally a sacred seed rooted in the language of myth. Corn has evolved with human hands in central Mexico for at least 7000 years, from tiny teosinte to the jumbo-pop what we see here.

Corn carpets so much of this nation's heartland.

I just returned from a road trip from Santa Cruz to Chicago and back again. I passed through 11 states, over 29 Tribal Nations and territories, and innumerable Native lands that were never ceded. I saw a lot of beautiful things: sunrises, sunsets, hawks, herons, rushing rivers, and crystal-clear streams. I also saw some deeply unsettling things, and this corn was among them.

You could say I'm obsessed with corn. I’ve documented it, grown its wild progenitor, and created an art exhibition about it. But when I saw this corn, I was hesitant to even touch it; it was a ghost of what it should have been. This isn’t plant selection, this is Frankenstein.

And what does it say about the US that at the "heart" of our land is a nutrient-deprived shell of something that was once sacred and vital??

In Mexico they say #sinmaiznohaypais — Without Corn, There Is No Country. I worry for this country. So please: VOTE, because we need to plant a new kernel