Corn is planted and harvested in nearly all the Earth's farmland that is suitable for agriculture. But it was not always so. Until 500 years ago, its use was limited to what we now know as the Americas, from Chile to Canada.

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The cultivation of this plant, from the 'gramineae' family, originated thousands of years ago in the area that is now Mexico and Central America. The oldest vestiges of corn production found in the region are some 7,000 years old. It is here that the word ''maize'' was born, meaning ''sustenance of life''.

Corn served as the basis of the diet, and even the culture, of the ancient civilizations of the Americas.

Across the Western Hemisphere, it is known by different names: corn, maíz, choclo, jojoto, milho, and elote, for example. There are six basic types of corn: dentate, hard, soft (or grainy), sweet, popcorn and sheathed.

Beyond its virtues as a food (where it demonstrates an incredibly capacity to transform itself into flour, pasta, etc.) maize holds other surprises: it is used as the basic ingredient for some industrial processes, such as the production of starch, oil, protein, alcoholic beverages, sweeteners, and fuels.

Reflecting its importance for humanity, the Internet holds seemingly infinite references to corn. There are hundreds of recipes from a wide range of cultures, and numerous sites that explain its uses, or inform us of its basic characteristics.

And if you combine the word ''corn'' or ''maize'' with the term ''transgenic'' in just about any Internet search engine, you'll enter one of the hot debates of today: whether humanity should be producing genetically modified corn, as the consequences for the environment and human health are still relatively unknown