Iowa might be about the best place on earth to grow corn but it was not domesticated there. Corn was not a crop already existing in nature that people slightly modified. Humans created it about 9,000 years ago far to the south of Iowa in the highlands of Mexico.
Eating the Past: Iowa corn
![Corn on the cob](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c2095ce/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x853+0+0/resize/880x586!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa0%2Faf%2F0635a9424df8bcb6ab45d6045d7a%2Fcorn.jpg)