From teocintle to corn

Photographs: Takeo Angel Kato Yamakake y otros

Source: Norman C. Ellstrand. Director, Biotech Impacts Center. UC.

Corn: A success history with 8,000 years of progress and improvements

• Highly adaptable crop. It can be grown in different temperature, climate, altitude, soil and so on.

• It grow from sea level to 3,000 meters above sea level. In extreme conditions .

Distribution of some corn varieties according to altitude and rainfall

Fuente: Eckart Boege, 2004.

•Ideal crop for climate change

Corn is the most relevant crop worldwide for volume production:

Yellow corn is the first worldwide grown. Few countries grow mainly White corn as México

Cereal wordwide production (1996-2006)Millions of tons.

Great use diversity Over 7000 industrialized food products contain chemical corn derivatives. Everyday we consume food products that likely contain  starch, dextrose, high fructose …corn derivatives

MILK MILK MILK MILKMILK Foot paste

MILK MILK

this represents 55% dialy caloric intake and

22% protein of mexicans

Mexicans eat 200 to 800 grams of corn every day

Corn production 2001Municipal distribution principal crops:

Cotton concentration Cotton predominance

 

Rice concentration  

Coffe concentrationCoffe predominance

 

Sugar c.concentrationSugar c.predominance

 

Bean concentrationBean predominanceBean total

 

Corn concen.Corn predomin.Corn total

 

Sorghum concen.Sorghum predomi.Sorghum total

 

Soy predominance  

Weath concentration Weath predominance

 

Smoth homeland, your surface is corn!

Comportamiento del rendimiento medio nacional de maíz

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004p 2005e

Ton/

ha

Corn production in México has been increased on the last 12 years (1994-2006)Without subsidies to support peasants, since NAFTA and in spite of infrastructure imbalances between USA and México

Total population in agriculture

National corn yield ( 1994-20005)  )

Comparison between transgenic crops and approved events

Comercial genetically modified crops