From teocintle to corn
Source: Norman C. Ellstrand. Director, Biotech Impacts Center. UC.
Photographs: Takeo Angel Kato Yamakake y otros
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:
Cereal wordwide production (1996-2006) Millions of tons.
Yellow corn is the first worldwide grown. Few countries grow mainly White corn as MĂŠxico
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
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Foot paste
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Mexicans eat 200 to 800 grams of corn every day
this represents 55% dialy caloric intake and 22% protein of mexicans
Corn production 2001 Municipal distribution principal crops: Cotton concentration Cotton predominance Rice concentration Coffe concentration Coffe predominance Sugar c.concentration Sugar c.predominance Bean concentration Bean predominance Bean total
Smoth homeland, your surface is corn!
Corn concen. Corn predomin. Corn total Sorghum concen. Sorghum predomi. Sorghum total Soy predominance Weath concentration Weath predominance
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
Comportamiento del rendimiento medio nacional
National corn yield ( 1994-20005) ) de maíz 3.00 2.50
Ton/ha
2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 1994 1995
Total population in agriculture
1996 1997
1998 1999
2000 2001
2002 2003 2004p 2005e
Comparison between transgenic crops and approved events Comercial genetically modified crops