01x08 - Corn

[bunniefuu]

[Redzepi] A meal can change you.

That happened to me in the cornfields

of the Yucatán nearly 20 years ago.

It was my first trip to Mexico,

and I found myself in the

tiny village of Yaxuná,

where a family cooked me a

meal I can still taste today.

A mind-bending mix of

flavors and textures

teased from ingredients grown

just meters from where we ate.

And there, at the center of

it all, the mighty tortilla.

Made just minutes before, from

corn grown in the backyard.

It was a revelation.

So different from the hard shell

tortillas I'd suffered in Denmark.

It made me think,

"What have I been

missing out on?"

Turns out a lot.

Corn originated in Mexico

approximately 10,000 years ago,

growing as a wild

grass called teocintle.

Today, it covers more of the

Earth's surface than any other crop,

serving as a vital staple, from

the Americas to central Africa.

But corn is more than food.

It's one of the building

blocks of modern life.

A multibillion-dollar

global industry

positioned at the center of

our industrialized world.

How did corn become the most

powerful plant on earth?

And what does it mean for

the future of food, and us?

For ten days every August,

Des Moines is home to America's

greatest love letter to corn,

the Iowa State Fair.

Almost everything you

can eat or drink here

is made from some form of corn.

But it all starts with the cob.

Golden, delicious,

sweet corn kernels

bathed in a tide

of melted butter.

There are few food memories

that compare to that first

bite of fresh summer corn.

The pop of the kernels

paired with butter.

The combination of

sweet, savory, starchy.

As a bite, it's

close to perfect.

But what makes corn truly unique

is the myriad of other foods

this ingredient

can transform into.

It thickens. It sweetens.

It emulsifies. It adds texture.

This is due to three main

components: sugar, fat and starch.

Fat is easy. Squeeze the kernels

hard enough and you get oil.

Corn's sugar turns into syrup.

Just as sweet as table sugar

and cheaper to produce.

Starch gives crunch.

If you eat something crispy or flaky,

chances are you have cornstarch to thank.

All told, scientists have

found a way to transform corn

into hundreds of

food derivatives.

That's how it came to dominate

the State Fair in Iowa

and grocery stores

across the country.

More than a quarter of the

items in an American supermarket

contain corn in some

form or another.

[country music playing]

[guest] I'll give

you all the sauce.

[guest 2] Make sure

they don't give him any.

[guest] I'll take one of those.

- [guest 3] This one?

- [guest] Yeah. That'd be good.

[guest 2] You're gonna eat some?

[guest 4] I reckon we could

get one or two or three.

- [guest 3] There you go.

- [guest 4] It's not hot.

- The veggies aren't hot.

- [guest 3] There you go.

[guest] Grandma needs

potatoes too, Colton.

[laughs] Who wants to eat?

- [guest 4] Here, Dad.

- [guest 2] Here, honey. I can take that.

- [guest] I got it.

- [guest 3 laughs]

[guest 2] This is one

of her best dishes,

so she makes this for us

once every couple of weeks.

[moos]

[vehicle approaches]

[snorting]

I've been farming for 34 years.

When I was two years old,

Dad used to take me with

him on the tractors.

Loved it ever since.

[snorting]

I would be the fourth generation.

My boy would be the fifth.

Grandpa gave it to Dad.

Dad helped me get started.

I want to help my

boys get started.

[moos]

Corn is king. That's what they

say in Iowa. Corn is king.

Our soil and our weather patterns

is very conducive to corn,

and we can really

optimize the corn plant.

That's our number one

crop for most Iowa farms.

Most Midwestern farms, really.

Colton, come here

and look at this one.

Oh, right here.

I mean, look at this. Uh

Here we go. Look at this

bad boy. Now we're cooking.

[Tim] When you can plant

one little, tiny seed

and in 160 days,

you have this ginormous stalk

with this ginormous ear on it.

I mean, that's kinda cool.

It makes you so thankful

that you did this.

That's gonna be good

corn. It's super big.

[Colton] Yes, sir.

That's big corn there.

[Tim] Yep.

[Redzepi] Looking out at the vast

fields of the American Midwest,

it's hard not to be

impressed by corn.

We grow more of it than any

other ingredient in the world.

1.1 billion tons globally.

From the Far East to southern

Europe to Latin America,

corn dominates the

agricultural landscape.

But no country produces

more than the United States,

where the cornfields alone would

cover an area the size of Germany.

It's so much corn, satellite sensors can

see it photosynthesizing from outer space.

[Tim] Growing corn,

to be good at it,

you have to pay really a

lot of attention to detail.

It's definitely not just hooking up a

plow to a tractor like it used to be.

It's much more

complex than that.

We need to maximize every

acre to get the maximum yield,

so it can be profitable for us but it

can still be cheaper for the consumer.

Nobody quite understands us,

but we have so many dollars tied

up in the equipment we're running

and the cost of land.

You know, one tractor could cost

500 to 600 thousand dollars.

[engine starts]

So you got so many dollars

wrapped up doing what we're doing.

[leaves rustling]

This is actually gonna

be better than up north.

Remember we thought up north is gonna

be the best because of more rain but

I think this is gonna be really

good. It looks like to me.

What's it yield-wise?

It's from 220 to 270.

[Redzepi] Industrialized

corn is all around us.

We consume it all the time,

often without even knowing it.

We brush our teeth with it.

We wash our clothes with it.

And we stock our medicine

cabinets with it.

Many of us, whether we know it or

not, fill our gas tanks with corn.

No creation had a bigger

impact on corn's future

than the development of ethanol.

Made by fermenting

corn into alcohol.

[rumbling]

Nearly half of all US corn goes

into making this potent fuel.

And fuel is just one of corn's thousands

of manifestations in our modern world.

[machine whirring]

Corn is found in everything.

From bourbon to battery acid.

Crayons to cardboard.

Antibiotics.

Fiberglass. Matches.

Detergent. Cork.

Insecticides. Linoleum.

Cigarettes. Ceramics.

Candles. Tires.

Aspirin. Shoe polish. Makeup.

And yes, even fireworks.

When all is said and done,

less than 10% of US

corn is grown for food.

It can be hard to remember

where corn comes from.

But in many places

throughout the world,

traditional hand-grown corn

still provides a way of life,

the same way it has

for thousands of years.

[laughs]

[crunches]

[in Spanish] Mmm. So tasty.

- See?

- Mine.

[gasps] Yes, it's

yours. [Chuckles]

[Ricardo] Since I was eight or ten

years old, I have been helping my dad

clear the fields, cutting

down trees, planting,

all the work of the cornfield.

That's what we were doing.

We didn't have other work.

[Redzepi, in English] Since the

earliest days of the Mayans,

communities across the Yucatán

have depended on traditional

farming techniques

with corn as the main staple

among dozens of crops.

Farmers like

Francisco and Ricardo

are guardians of an ancient system

of agriculture called the milpa,

an interconnected and finely

tuned system of plants and people

where everything serves

a specific purpose.

[Ricardo, in Spanish] Since

we began working the land

Mmm. Delicious!

our great-grandparents,

who gave us the seeds told us:

"When you plant the corn,"

"you have to plant navy

beans, beans or squash."

Because the seeds can use

each other for support

when they sprout.

The beans wrap around the corncobs so

they are held tightly and won't fall down.

It's like someone who

is recently married.

They're hugging,

they are kissing.

It's the same with the

seeds we're planting here.

They have to be planted with each

other so they can hug each other

when the beautiful

seeds start to sprout.

And when everything dies

and the next planting

season arrives,

it becomes fertilizer and helps

to reinvigorate the worn-out soil.

[Francisco] It's great

that you keep your seeds,

because once you lose them

you'll depend on the companies!

[Ricardo] Mm-hmm.

[Francisco] Look at

the silk on that one!

- [Ricardo] Mm-hmm.

- Look at these ears of corn!

[Francisco] The milpa is

important for the whole world.

That means everything,

intertwined together.

It's not just for humans, but

also for animals and birds.

It motivates me to

work even harder.

It's our duty and

it's our culture.

[in Mayan] Well, the sun is

warming up. I'm leaving now.

Are you leaving?

- I'm leaving. That's it for today.

- Okay, then.

[Francisco] I'll call you

tomorrow to come down here.

[Ricardo] Okay.

- And we'll both be here, together.

- [Francisco] That's great.

[Redzepi, in English] The

most important contrast

between commodity corn and milpa

corn isn't the corn itself.

It's the ecosystem

surrounding it.

In a milpa, corn grows alongside

other plants like beans and squash,

each playing a supporting role

in a world where the sum

is greater than its parts.

I think we all know that

big-scale agriculture

comes with a series of problems.

[in Spanish] Such

beautiful soil.

[Redzepi, in English] It can rob

the soil of nutrients and water

and threaten biodiversity.

And don't get me

started on flavor.

Polycultures like the

milpa can do the opposite.

They create richer,

more nutrient-dense soil

and play host to a vibrant

mix of flora and fauna.

Surprisingly, milpas can

also be wildly efficient.

It's complex, but in

the best examples,

they can yield six times more calories

than a farm that grows only corn.

And I believe it

tastes so much better.

Richer soil. More

diversity. Higher yields.

More deliciousness.

What's not to love?

[Maria, in Spanish] Corn is

very important here in our town.

The majority of us work

with corn every day.

These traditions are very old.

My ancestors: my grandmothers, my

great-grandmothers and my mother,

all of these generations

made tortillas.

Having corn is essential.

Without corn

we are nothing.

[Redzepi, in English] Long

ago, in early Mesoamerica,

farmers and cooks found a way to

tap into corn's true potential.

It's called nixtamalization.

A process of soaking the kernels

in a mixture of water and

wood ash or limestone.

A revolutionary technique

that unlocked corn's nutrients

and created a super food that

an entire region survived on.

They were shaped into masa dough

and created what I consider one

of the most perfect of all foods.

The corn tortilla.

Like baking good bread,

you'd think making a

tortilla should be simple.

But it isn't.

To me a great tortilla is

soft with a delicate chew.

Almost melting on the tongue.

It's fragrant,

nourishing, versatile.

A staple of most Mexican meals.

But tortillas are

just the beginning.

Corn can be shaped into

thousands of dishes.

The conduit behind

what is surely

one of the world's most

incredible cuisines.

It's easy to see why corn is

Mexico's most revered ingredient.

But how did it go from this

to an industrialized super crop?

[presenter] Good

morning, everyone,

and welcome to the 2022

Farm Progress Show.

[applause, cheering]

[march playing]

[presenter] Today,

we're excited to unveil

the industry's first

autonomous spreader,

right behind you.

[applause]

[farmer] What do you think?

There's nobody in it.

- Yeah.

- [march playing]

[presenter 2] I work here because

autonomy is gonna change farming.

I can tell you, even as a farmer

myself, it is hard to find labor.

[vendor] It'll have

six cameras on it,

three in the front, three in

the back, for a whole 360 view.

And it sees it, analyzes it,

and actually the system learns more

from being out in the field and working.

- I'll be darned.

- Yeah.

[narrator] It's all

about technology.

What's going to make a

farmer more productive?

What's going to make them be able to grow

more corn so they can feed the world?

- [music stops]

- [audience applauds]

[Redzepi] Food has always been a

powerful engine for innovation.

What better reason

to invent new tools

than to get more food, faster?

A major turning point

for corn came in 1837,

when an Illinois blacksmith

found a broken saw blade

and forged it into the

world's first steel plow.

That man's name was John Deere.

The invention of the steel plow

was part of a series

of profound changes

that altered our

relationship to nature.

Instead of working with nature's

forces, we tried to dominate them.

Everything possible

to maximize output.

In the wake of World w*r II,

Americans turned the weapons of

w*r into weapons of agriculture.

Poisonous gases

became pesticides.

Tanks became tractors.

Ammonium nitrate used to make

expl*sives became fertilizer.

But corn needed more than

technology to become king.

It needed political support.

Which it received in the form of

hundreds of billions of dollars' worth

of government assistance.

More than any other ingredient

in the United States.

We've proved our ingenuity

time and time again.

Streamlining our food system

to make food cheaper and

more plentiful for all.

And perhaps no ingredient

has thrived in this system

as much as corn.

Today, corn is no

longer just a plant.

It's an all-encompassing

industry.

No sector of society is

outside the reach of corn.

In fact, the plant

is so powerful

that if you want to be

president of the United States,

you need to eat corn.

[Hillary Clinton] They

hit the ground running

- to do the job that needs to be done.

- [crowd applauds]

And it starts

right here in Iowa.

[Redzepi] Why?

Because the state of Iowa is where the

American presidential election begins.

But the politics of corn

were forever changed

on December 8th, 1993,

when Bill Clinton signed the

North American Free Trade Act,

also known as NAFTA,

allowing a free flow of products

between the US, Canada and Mexico.

Now we must recognize that the only

way for a wealthy nation to grow richer

is to export.

To simply find new customers for

the products and services it makes.

[Redzepi] With that

stroke of a pen,

Clinton all but guaranteed

American industrialized

corn's rise to dominance,

both north and south

of its borders.

[Sturtz] Landus, this year, will handle

roughly 250 million bushels of corn,

which equates to 12 billion

600,000 pounds of grain.

We'll service probably 30 to

50 farmers throughout the year.

That's good, Al. That's good.

It's a very small percentage

of the crop grown in Iowa.

[Redzepi] The passage of NAFTA

had a dramatic effect on America's

relationship with Mexico.

Practically overnight, trade between

these two countries exploded.

[engineer, in

Spanish] Good evening.

We have 110 units.

[Redzepi, in English] US

corn poured into Mexico.

Mexican farmers struggled to keep

up with this new corn economy.

Within a decade, a million

farmers were out of work.

Today, 80% of the corn

consumed by Mexico

is imported from the US.

And a culture built on corn

has been fundamentally changed.

As American corn enveloped most of

Mexico, waves of resistance took shape.

[crowd, in Spanish]

Get out of the country!

We want tortillas!

We want corn!

Multinational corporations,

get out of our country!

[Redzepi, in English] People protested

for the legions of small farmers

who lost their livelihoods

[in Spanish] Get out of

Latin America, Monsanto!

[Redzepi, in English] for the

threat to local culture and traditions,

and for the tremendous toll

that large-scale monocrop

farming takes on the environment.

[in Spanish] Without

corn, there is no country!

[Redzepi, in English] The barrage

of environmental information

can be overwhelming.

UN reports. Academic

studies. Newspaper headlines.

Doom and gloom.

I feel it myself often.

But there's no denying anymore

that how we produce our food

comes at a high cost

to our landscape, to

our food producers,

to the ingredients themselves.

You can't help but wonder,

"Is this the right way forward?"

[farmers chattering in Mayan]

[Ricardo, in Spanish] The seeds

are the heritage of our country

and of the whole world.

They are like blood.

We care for our blood the same

way we care for our seeds.

Because they are life.

We produce everything

naturally, with no chemicals.

[in Mayan] This is the

natural color of this seed.

Even the tortilla

will have that color.

I like to plant this color

because it is in great demand.

[in Spanish] Everything is done

by hand. No machines at all.

But the whole harvest

is about quality.

Not quantity, but quality.

I like to say that we're

rich, not in money,

but in food.

[Redzepi, in English] The way we grow

food has been moving in one direction.

Bigger farms, fewer farmers.

Seemingly less concern for

flavor and biodiversity.

But what if there's

a different path?

Emerging collectives

like Traspatio Maya

have helped connect milpa farmers

with restaurants and buyers

across the world.

They're using modern techniques,

from social media to better

distribution channels,

to bring the best ingredients

to a wider population.

There's something valuable to

be taken from this approach.

One that fuses the wisdom of the

past with the best tools of today.

What if small corn harnessed

the technological powers and

political savviness of big corn?

What if big corn learned

from the ancient knowledge and

time-tested practices of small corn?

This is more than

a romantic idea.

It's a reality unfolding

across the food world.

Brazilian coffee farmers.

Indian rice growers.

Natural wine producers

across Europe.

There's definitely a new

movement taking place,

one where a closer relationship

to nature is at the forefront.

Practices like carbon

cropping and crop rotation

can help farms produce

more with less.

It's not just good stewardship,

good ethics or good marketing.

It can be good business.

[Colton] My dad, he'd always tell

me to take pride in what you do.

Don't ever do anything,

you know, with half effort.

I mean, he can be a real

stickler sometimes too, you know.

But, I mean, in today's world,

in this kind of operation we're

on, you know, you have to be.

You know, there's

no room for playing.

I mean, you either do

it right or you don't.

Up here, we're very fortunate

enough to have rich, black soil.

There's a lot of nutrients in it.

It's just good soil to grow crops.

When I went to college, I took

an environmental science class.

They talked about how if we

put a cover crop on the soil,

it keeps all the nitrates out of

groundwater and it's good organic matter.

There's just a whole bunch of

different aspects that it's good for.

So we tried it one year

and it didn't hurt us.

There wasn't a huge

yield difference.

It's good for the soil, it's

less emissions in the earth.

Overall, I think it's gonna be better

than what we thought it would be.

Like, oh, yeah, that's

that's pretty good.

[Tim] When I was

younger, farming,

I wasn't worried about

doing the cover crop thing,

trying to help all

the environment out.

That wasn't my number one.

Now, I look at that a lot more.

[Tim] What is it, spring-loaded?

Part of it's my age, but part of it's

just the way agriculture has went too.

We all have to do

the right thing.

[rooster crows]

[Redzepi] Ancient Mayans believed

that the gods fashioned humans

from kernels of corn.

Thousands of years later,

corn is still at the

center of life here.

[Ricardo, in Spanish] They say

that the day when corn disappears,

people will also start to

disappear, little by little.

The knowledge that we have, we

did not learn it all at once.

It was given to us little by

little, step by step, year by year.

If we can teach others,

they'll go and teach others

how to do it as well.

It's very important because

nature is from God.

We must not lose our culture.

[Redzepi, in English] That first bite here

in southern Mexico nearly 20 years ago

wasn't just a great meal.

It was a lesson in what

food at its best can be.

A taste of the world around us

and a window into the

lives of those who made it.

A freshly slaughtered pig

unearthed after hours of

slow cooking over hot coals.

Marinated with achiote

seeds and sour oranges

plucked from the front yard.

Served on a warm tortilla made

with corn from the family's milpa.

A squeeze of lime.

A hint of chili.

A slice of marinated onion.

Could this be as close to

a perfect bite as anything?

Maybe you've had a

moment like this.

One that tastes like the best

meal on earth at that second

because it can only

happen right there.

Not every meal is a revelation,

but every bite can

be a small vote

for the kind of world

that we want to live in.

Change is inevitable

but sometimes, when

looking at food,

the best innovations

have already happened.

Somewhere between the

cornfields seen from space

and the milpas hidden

to the untrained eye

is a version of corn that suggests a

more delicious and promising future.

What if that future was

the best of both worlds?

The monoculture and the milpa.