“Corn has a rich history stretching back thousands of years to Mesoamerica, where it was domesticated from a wild grass called teosinte. Indigenous peoples in the Americas developed corn through selective breeding, making it a cornerstone of their diets…After Christopher Columbus introduced corn to Europe in 1493, it spread rapidly across the globe, becoming a dietary staple” in “countless cuisines,” notes The Doomslayer:
Today, corn is the most widely produced grain in the world, with global production exceeding 1.2 billion metric tons. The United States leads the world in corn production, consumption, and exports—accounting for 31 percent of global output….Over 95 percent of animal feed for US livestock—such as cattle, hogs, and poultry—comes from corn, which makes up roughly 40 percent of all corn used domestically.
In the 1930s, US corn yields averaged 26 bushels per acre. Today, that number is 179.3 bushels per acre—with top-performing farms reaching an astonishing 624 bushels. That’s a 589.6 percent increase in yield over 88 years. One acre today produces as much corn as nearly 6.89 acres did in 1936….Yields continue to rise at about 1.75 bushels per year, doubling every 31.6 years….Corn was selling for around 68 cents a bushel in the 1930s. US unskilled workers were earning around 28 cents an hour. That would put the time price at 2.42 hours. The USDA currently estimates the season-average corn price at $4.20 per bushel for the 2025-2026 crop year. Unskilled workers are earning $17.17 an hour putting the time price at 0.24 hours or around 15 minutes. The time price has fallen from 145 minutes to 15 minutes, or almost 90 percent. For the time it took an unskilled worker to earn the money to buy one bushel of corn in 1930, they get 9.7 bushels today.
Genetic engineering led to a corn yield breakthrough last year in China. Corn production has also risen rapidly in countries like Brazil.
Mexicans and South Africans are the biggest eaters of corn, per person. This explains the abundance of corn on the menu in South African restaurants such as the Nando’s PERi-PERi chicken restaurant chain.
