Corn

Dea mays

CORN. A starchy grain, orig­i­nal­ly grown to pro­vide car­bo­hy­drate nour­ish­ment. It is com­mon­ly fed to an­i­mals, which then be­come food for hu­mans. Hu­mans al­so con­sume corn in its whole form as well as deriva­tives such as high-fruc­tose corn syrup, which has be­come the ba­sis for most man­u­fac­tured food items.

Corn can al­so be pro­cessed in­to ethanol, which is com­bined with gaso­line to fu­el the ve­hi­cles trans­port­ing hu­mans to lo­ca­tions where they pur­chase their corn-de­rived food. Ethanol al­so pro­vides a liq­uid com­po­nent of the hu­man di­et.

Be­cause of its in­creas­ing­ly com­plete and in­flex­i­ble rôle in the sus­te­nance of life and civ­i­liza­tion, corn is quick­ly be­com­ing one of the most revered and re­viled sym­bols of mod­ern times. This fact places the once-hum­ble grain on a prob­a­ble track to fu­ture re­li­gious sig­nif­i­cance and ul­ti­mate de­ifi­ca­tion.