11.07.2016

Human prosperity and longevity over time is perfectly correlated with the size of corn cob!


Domesticating maize

Excerpt:

The history of modern-day maize begins at the dawn of human agriculture, about 10,000 years ago. Ancient farmers in what is now Mexico took the first steps in domesticating maize when they simply chose which kernels (seeds) to plant. These farmers noticed that not all plants were the same. Some plants may have grown larger than others, or maybe some kernels tasted better or were easier to grind. The farmers saved kernels from plants with desirable characteristics and planted them for the next season's harvest. This process is known as selective breeding or artificial selection. Maize cobs became larger over time, with more rows of kernels, eventually taking on the form of modern maize.
Comment: Image source

7 comments:

  1. JP, are you for GMO foods now as well?

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    Replies
    1. Haven't thought much about it. I just about answered "all foods are GMO" but that's not accurate. here's a Time article on GMO foods

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  2. Selective breeding is different than GMO. I am not opposed to Roundup Ready® seeds

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  3. GMO crops are something that I am very, very suspicious of, as are many others, for a variety of reasons. (health concerns, monopolization of the seed industry, etc.)

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  4. JP, I like you and your site, but sometimes I seriously wonder if you are a real person and not a CIA-paid plant whose job it is to spread disinformation about things like Trump, etc. Has anyone ever met the real JP in person?

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  5. JP is real. JP is educated. JP is a friend.

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  6. On topic; a-maize-ing.

    Off topic; I'm uneasy about GMO foods because it's the one way you can introduce new protein sequences into a food or other plant/animal. Hence you can get side effects that you could never get via hybridization.

    To draw a picture, I learned that a professor at Appalachian Bible College (missionary to Sweden/Germany/Scotland with five children who went to 4th & Central), as well as a network administrator at 4th (again, not to name names), both had problems eating beef fattened on corn--presumably GMO corn.

    Just as an experiment (and with their consent of course), I gave them some grass fed beef my father in law had grown, and they at least said they did fine. There are some things that do not appear to be measured well by "mean" responses. Something may be going on in the outliers, which is statistically the toughest place to work.

    Oh, and BTW, JP is real, but I've never seen him together with Ozzy Osbourne. Just sayin'. :^)

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