U.S. demand for high-quality Mexican food, especially tortillas, “has created a small but growing market for the native, or landrace, corn that is central to life” in the central plains of Oaxaca, reports the New York Times. “Mexico grows some 59 varieties of corn and consumes more of the grain per capita than almost anywhere on earth.”
Corn, or maize, is believed to have originated in Mexico thousands of years ago, probably through natural crossings. “Corn is perhaps the most domesticated of all field crops,” according to a brief history by Iowa State University. “It could not have existed as a wild plant in its current form.”
In Oaxaca, farmers grow small fields of native corn, yielding orange, dark yellow, white and burgundy kernels. They save seeds for the next crop, keep some of the corn for their families’ food supply, and sell the rest. “The appetite for native maize offers hope to smallholders who have been hammered over the past 20 years by competition from cheap American corn and could save varieties that would otherwise disappear as farmers put down their tools and take off to El Norte,” says the Times. Plant scientists say the new niche market could provide enough income to draw a new generation of farmers to the land and preserve landrace corn. But many farms must become more productive and boost their yields to survive.