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8000 BCE
The First Appearance of Maize
Cultivated corn was domesticated from teosinte more than 8,700 years ago. Ancient farmers in nowadays Mexico started to domesticate maize when they chose which kernels (seeds) to plant. (8,000 BCE) These farmers noticed that not all plants were the same. Some plants may have grown larger than others, or maybe some kernels tasted better or were easier to grind. The farmers saved kernels from plants with desirable characteristics and planted them for the next season's harvest. And so on. -
5000 BCE
Migration of Mesoamerican people brings corn to North and South America
At about 5,000 BCE, as the Mesoamerican people migrated into North America and south into Peru, they introduced corn into the new communities. -
1492
Columbian Exchange brings corn to Europe
In 1492, corn was introduced to Europe by explorers by what became known as the Columbian Exchange. Corn propagation happened in Europe. -
John Lorain creates a hybrid corn
In 1812, John Lorain - a farmer, merchant, agricultural writer - consciously mixed the different kinds of corn to create a hybrid. He crossed “flint corn and gourd seed corn to form a hybrid with higher productivity than either parent.” -
Hybrid Corn was Commercially Feasible
Donald Jones made hybrid corn commercially feasible. "In 1917 Jones successfully combined two single-cross hybrid corn varieties in a double cross, or four-way combination, that resulted in a new, uniform, highly productive variety." -
Supersweet corn was invented
In the early 1950s, John Laughnan discovered that the kernels of sh2 (an allele) are unusually sweet and have a pleasant malty flavor; he developed a commercially acceptable hybrid in 1961. -
Bt Corn was Invented
In 1996, bt-corn was invented and it has a poison that kills insects but are harmless to us; this corn was genetically modified by putting the gene from the bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) bacteria into the crop plant. -
Ht Corn Commercialized
Also in 1996, ht corn was first commercialized, herbicide resistant corn is useful because farmers can kill off the weed without killing the corn. -
FAST Allows Corn Plant to Mature in Less Time
In 2008, Functional Analysis System for Traits (FAST) allows corn plants to grow to maturity in a fraction of the time, approximately two months, compared to more than 100 days in field conditions. Now, people use seed production technology to dramatically increase the efficiency of hybrid seed production. -
Dt Corn Became Widely Available
In 2011, Dt corn became widely available, Dt means drought tolerant and the corn requires less water to survive.
