Photos of corn like the ones in this blog post have become symbols of fall harvest and Thanksgiving. Corn and many products made with it are nowadays an important part of the diet of many of us. How has corn become a staple of our diet? What has made it one of the most cultivated crops in the world? And what are the consequences of growing so much corn? These questions and many others are dealt with in a new TED-Ed lesson entitled How Corn Conququer the World.
[Embed] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6teBcfKpik [/ embed]
Applications for education
This TED-Ed lesson can be the starting point for more or deeper lessons on how agriculture affects many parts of our lives, whether we realize it or not. For example, the graphs at the end of the lesson illustrate how increased corn production has contributed to increased meat production and both things have environmental effects. The increase in cheap corn production also increases the amount of cheap junk food, which in turn can lead to obesity.
