Mary Allen
Corn is a grain. In Austria they also say Kukuruz. The thick grains are often yellow, but can also have other colors depending on the variety. They are located on large, long cobs that grow on thick culms with leaves.
Maize originally comes from Central America. The plant from there is called teosinte. Around the year 1550, Europeans took some of these plants with them to Europe and cultivated them there.
Over the centuries, corn has been bred as we know it today: much larger and with more kernels than teosinte. For a long time, however, maize was hardly cultivated in Europe, and if so, then as animal feed because of the long stalks. A lot of corn has been grown since the middle of the 20th century. Today it is the third most common grain in the world.
What is corn used for?
Even today, a lot of corn is grown to feed animals. Of course, you can also eat it. For this it is processed. That’s where the cornflakes come from, for example. “Corn” is the American word for corn.
Since around the year 2000, however, corn has also been needed for something else: corn is put into a biogas plant together with manure from pigs or cattle. Some cars can run on biogas. Or you can burn it to generate electricity.