Original subtitles

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.

I'll give you all the sauce.

Make sure they don't give him any.

I'll take one of those.

- This one? - Yeah. That'd be good.

You're gonna eat some?

I reckon we could get one or two or three.

- There you go. - It's not hot.

- The veggies aren't hot. - There you go.

Grandma needs potatoes too, Colton.

Who wants to eat?

- Here, Dad. - Here, honey. I can take that.

I got it.

This is one of her best dishes,

so she makes this for us once every couple of weeks.

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.

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.

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.

Right here.

I mean, look at this.

Here we go. Look at this bad boy. Now we're cooking.

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.

Yes, sir. That's big corn there.

Yep.

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.

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.

So you got so many dollars wrapped up doing what we're doing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So tasty.

- See? - Mine.

Yes, it's yours.

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.

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.

Since we began working the land...

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.

It's great that you keep your seeds,

because once you lose them you'll depend on the companies!

Look at the silk on that one!

Look at these ears of corn!

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.

Well, the sun is warming up. I'm leaving now.

Are you leaving?

- I'm leaving. That's it for today. - Okay, then.

I'll call you tomorrow to come down here.

Okay.

- And we'll both be here, together. - That's great.

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.

Such beautiful soil.

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?

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.

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?

Good morning, everyone,

and welcome to the 2022 Farm Progress Show.

Today, we're excited to unveil

the industry's first autonomous spreader,

right behind you.

What do you think?

There's nobody in it.

Yeah.

I work here because autonomy is gonna change farming.

I can tell you, even as a farmer myself, it is hard to find labor.

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.

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?

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 War II,

Americans turned the weapons of war into weapons of agriculture.

Poisonous gases became pesticides.

Tanks became tractors.

Ammonium nitrate used to make explosives 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.

They hit the ground running

to do the job that needs to be done.

And it starts right here in Iowa.

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.

With that stroke of a pen,

Clinton all but guaranteed

American industrialized corn's rise to dominance,

both north and south of its borders.

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.

The passage of NAFTA

had a dramatic effect on America's relationship with Mexico.

Practically overnight, trade between these two countries exploded.

Good evening.

We have 110 units.

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.

Get out of the country!

We want tortillas!

We want corn!

Multinational corporations, get out of our country!

People protested for the legions of small farmers

who lost their livelihoods...

Get out of Latin America, Monsanto!

...for the threat to local culture and traditions,

and for the tremendous toll

that large-scale monocrop farming takes on the environment.

Without corn, there is no country!

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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.