Omnivore (2024) s01e08 Episode Script
Corn
[Redzepi] A meal can change you.
That happened to me in the cornfields
of the Yucatán nearly 20 years ago.
It was my first trip to Mexico,
and I found myself in the
tiny village of Yaxuná,
where a family cooked me a
meal I can still taste today.
A mind-bending mix of
flavors and textures
teased from ingredients grown
just meters from where we ate.
And there, at the center of
it all, the mighty tortilla.
Made just minutes before, from
corn grown in the backyard.
It was a revelation.
So different from the hard shell
tortillas I'd suffered in Denmark.
It made me think,
"What have I been
missing out on?"
Turns out a lot.
Corn originated in Mexico
approximately 10,000 years ago,
growing as a wild
grass called teocintle.
Today, it covers more of the
Earth's surface than any other crop,
serving as a vital staple, from
the Americas to central Africa.
But corn is more than food.
It's one of the building
blocks of modern life.
A multibillion-dollar
global industry
positioned at the center of
our industrialized world.
How did corn become the most
powerful plant on earth?
And what does it mean for
the future of food, and us?
For ten days every August,
Des Moines is home to America's
greatest love letter to corn,
the Iowa State Fair.
Almost everything you
can eat or drink here
is made from some form of corn.
But it all starts with the cob.
Golden, delicious,
sweet corn kernels
bathed in a tide
of melted butter.
There are few food memories
that compare to that first
bite of fresh summer corn.
The pop of the kernels
paired with butter.
The combination of
sweet, savory, starchy.
As a bite, it's
close to perfect.
But what makes corn truly unique
is the myriad of other foods
this ingredient
can transform into.
It thickens. It sweetens.
It emulsifies. It adds texture.
This is due to three main
components: sugar, fat and starch.
Fat is easy. Squeeze the kernels
hard enough and you get oil.
Corn's sugar turns into syrup.
Just as sweet as table sugar
and cheaper to produce.
Starch gives crunch.
If you eat something crispy or flaky,
chances are you have cornstarch to thank.
All told, scientists have
found a way to transform corn
into hundreds of
food derivatives.
That's how it came to dominate
the State Fair in Iowa
and grocery stores
across the country.
More than a quarter of the
items in an American supermarket
contain corn in some
form or another.
[country music playing]
[guest] I'll give
you all the sauce.
[guest 2] Make sure
they don't give him any.
[guest] I'll take one of those.
- [guest 3] This one?
- [guest] Yeah. That'd be good.
[guest 2] You're gonna eat some?
[guest 4] I reckon we could
get one or two or three.
- [guest 3] There you go.
- [guest 4] It's not hot.
- The veggies aren't hot.
- [guest 3] There you go.
[guest] Grandma needs
potatoes too, Colton.
[laughs] Who wants to eat?
- [guest 4] Here, Dad.
- [guest 2] Here, honey. I can take that.
- [guest] I got it.
- [guest 3 laughs]
[guest 2] This is one
of her best dishes,
so she makes this for us
once every couple of weeks.
[moos]
[vehicle approaches]
[snorting]
I've been farming for 34 years.
When I was two years old,
Dad used to take me with
him on the tractors.
Loved it ever since.
[snorting]
I would be the fourth generation.
My boy would be the fifth.
Grandpa gave it to Dad.
Dad helped me get started.
I want to help my
boys get started.
[moos]
Corn is king. That's what they
say in Iowa. Corn is king.
Our soil and our weather patterns
is very conducive to corn,
and we can really
optimize the corn plant.
That's our number one
crop for most Iowa farms.
Most Midwestern farms, really.
Colton, come here
and look at this one.
Oh, right here.
I mean, look at this. Uh
Here we go. Look at this
bad boy. Now we're cooking.
[Tim] When you can plant
one little, tiny seed
and in 160 days,
you have this ginormous stalk
with this ginormous ear on it.
I mean, that's kinda cool.
It makes you so thankful
that you did this.
That's gonna be good
corn. It's super big.
[Colton] Yes, sir.
That's big corn there.
[Tim] Yep.
[Redzepi] Looking out at the vast
fields of the American Midwest,
it's hard not to be
impressed by corn.
We grow more of it than any
other ingredient in the world.
1.1 billion tons globally.
From the Far East to southern
Europe to Latin America,
corn dominates the
agricultural landscape.
But no country produces
more than the United States,
where the cornfields alone would
cover an area the size of Germany.
It's so much corn, satellite sensors can
see it photosynthesizing from outer space.
[Tim] Growing corn,
to be good at it,
you have to pay really a
lot of attention to detail.
It's definitely not just hooking up a
plow to a tractor like it used to be.
It's much more
complex than that.
We need to maximize every
acre to get the maximum yield,
so it can be profitable for us but it
can still be cheaper for the consumer.
Nobody quite understands us,
but we have so many dollars tied
up in the equipment we're running
and the cost of land.
You know, one tractor could cost
500 to 600 thousand dollars.
[engine starts]
So you got so many dollars
wrapped up doing what we're doing.
[leaves rustling]
This is actually gonna
be better than up north.
Remember we thought up north is gonna
be the best because of more rain but
I think this is gonna be really
good. It looks like to me.
What's it yield-wise?
It's from 220 to 270.
[Redzepi] Industrialized
corn is all around us.
We consume it all the time,
often without even knowing it.
We brush our teeth with it.
We wash our clothes with it.
And we stock our medicine
cabinets with it.
Many of us, whether we know it or
not, fill our gas tanks with corn.
No creation had a bigger
impact on corn's future
than the development of ethanol.
Made by fermenting
corn into alcohol.
[rumbling]
Nearly half of all US corn goes
into making this potent fuel.
And fuel is just one of corn's thousands
of manifestations in our modern world.
[machine whirring]
Corn is found in everything.
From bourbon to battery acid.
Crayons to cardboard.
Antibiotics.
Fiberglass. Matches.
Detergent. Cork.
Insecticides. Linoleum.
Cigarettes. Ceramics.
Candles. Tires.
Aspirin. Shoe polish. Makeup.
And yes, even fireworks.
When all is said and done,
less than 10% of US
corn is grown for food.
It can be hard to remember
where corn comes from.
But in many places
throughout the world,
traditional hand-grown corn
still provides a way of life,
the same way it has
for thousands of years.
[laughs]
[crunches]
[in Spanish] Mmm. So tasty.
- See?
- Mine.
[gasps] Yes, it's
yours. [Chuckles]
[Ricardo] Since I was eight or ten
years old, I have been helping my dad
clear the fields, cutting
down trees, planting,
all the work of the cornfield.
That's what we were doing.
We didn't have other work.
[Redzepi, in English] Since the
earliest days of the Mayans,
communities across the Yucatán
have depended on traditional
farming techniques
with corn as the main staple
among dozens of crops.
Farmers like
Francisco and Ricardo
are guardians of an ancient system
of agriculture called the milpa,
an interconnected and finely
tuned system of plants and people
where everything serves
a specific purpose.
[Ricardo, in Spanish] Since
we began working the land
Mmm. Delicious!
our great-grandparents,
who gave us the seeds told us:
"When you plant the corn,"
"you have to plant navy
beans, beans or squash."
Because the seeds can use
each other for support
when they sprout.
The beans wrap around the corncobs so
they are held tightly and won't fall down.
It's like someone who
is recently married.
They're hugging,
they are kissing.
It's the same with the
seeds we're planting here.
They have to be planted with each
other so they can hug each other
when the beautiful
seeds start to sprout.
And when everything dies
and the next planting
season arrives,
it becomes fertilizer and helps
to reinvigorate the worn-out soil.
[Francisco] It's great
that you keep your seeds,
because once you lose them
you'll depend on the companies!
[Ricardo] Mm-hmm.
[Francisco] Look at
the silk on that one!
- [Ricardo] Mm-hmm.
- Look at these ears of corn!
[Francisco] The milpa is
important for the whole world.
That means everything,
intertwined together.
It's not just for humans, but
also for animals and birds.
It motivates me to
work even harder.
It's our duty and
it's our culture.
[in Mayan] Well, the sun is
warming up. I'm leaving now.
Are you leaving?
- I'm leaving. That's it for today.
- Okay, then.
[Francisco] I'll call you
tomorrow to come down here.
[Ricardo] Okay.
- And we'll both be here, together.
- [Francisco] That's great.
[Redzepi, in English] The
most important contrast
between commodity corn and milpa
corn isn't the corn itself.
It's the ecosystem
surrounding it.
In a milpa, corn grows alongside
other plants like beans and squash,
each playing a supporting role
in a world where the sum
is greater than its parts.
I think we all know that
big-scale agriculture
comes with a series of problems.
[in Spanish] Such
beautiful soil.
[Redzepi, in English] It can rob
the soil of nutrients and water
and threaten biodiversity.
And don't get me
started on flavor.
Polycultures like the
milpa can do the opposite.
They create richer,
more nutrient-dense soil
and play host to a vibrant
mix of flora and fauna.
Surprisingly, milpas can
also be wildly efficient.
It's complex, but in
the best examples,
they can yield six times more calories
than a farm that grows only corn.
And I believe it
tastes so much better.
Richer soil. More
diversity. Higher yields.
More deliciousness.
What's not to love?
[Maria, in Spanish] Corn is
very important here in our town.
The majority of us work
with corn every day.
These traditions are very old.
My ancestors: my grandmothers, my
great-grandmothers and my mother,
all of these generations
made tortillas.
Having corn is essential.
Without corn
we are nothing.
[Redzepi, in English] Long
ago, in early Mesoamerica,
farmers and cooks found a way to
tap into corn's true potential.
It's called nixtamalization.
A process of soaking the kernels
in a mixture of water and
wood ash or limestone.
A revolutionary technique
that unlocked corn's nutrients
and created a super food that
an entire region survived on.
They were shaped into masa dough
and created what I consider one
of the most perfect of all foods.
The corn tortilla.
Like baking good bread,
you'd think making a
tortilla should be simple.
But it isn't.
To me a great tortilla is
soft with a delicate chew.
Almost melting on the tongue.
It's fragrant,
nourishing, versatile.
A staple of most Mexican meals.
But tortillas are
just the beginning.
Corn can be shaped into
thousands of dishes.
The conduit behind
what is surely
one of the world's most
incredible cuisines.
It's easy to see why corn is
Mexico's most revered ingredient.
But how did it go from this
to an industrialized super crop?
[presenter] Good
morning, everyone,
and welcome to the 2022
Farm Progress Show.
[applause, cheering]
[march playing]
[presenter] Today,
we're excited to unveil
the industry's first
autonomous spreader,
right behind you.
[applause]
[farmer] What do you think?
There's nobody in it.
- Yeah.
- [march playing]
[presenter 2] I work here because
autonomy is gonna change farming.
I can tell you, even as a farmer
myself, it is hard to find labor.
[vendor] It'll have
six cameras on it,
three in the front, three in
the back, for a whole 360 view.
And it sees it, analyzes it,
and actually the system learns more
from being out in the field and working.
- I'll be darned.
- Yeah.
[narrator] It's all
about technology.
What's going to make a
farmer more productive?
What's going to make them be able to grow
more corn so they can feed the world?
- [music stops]
- [audience applauds]
[Redzepi] Food has always been a
powerful engine for innovation.
What better reason
to invent new tools
than to get more food, faster?
A major turning point
for corn came in 1837,
when an Illinois blacksmith
found a broken saw blade
and forged it into the
world's first steel plow.
That man's name was John Deere.
The invention of the steel plow
was part of a series
of profound changes
that altered our
relationship to nature.
Instead of working with nature's
forces, we tried to dominate them.
Everything possible
to maximize output.
In the wake of World War II,
Americans turned the weapons of
war into weapons of agriculture.
Poisonous gases
became pesticides.
Tanks became tractors.
Ammonium nitrate used to make
explosives became fertilizer.
But corn needed more than
technology to become king.
It needed political support.
Which it received in the form of
hundreds of billions of dollars' worth
of government assistance.
More than any other ingredient
in the United States.
We've proved our ingenuity
time and time again.
Streamlining our food system
to make food cheaper and
more plentiful for all.
And perhaps no ingredient
has thrived in this system
as much as corn.
Today, corn is no
longer just a plant.
It's an all-encompassing
industry.
No sector of society is
outside the reach of corn.
In fact, the plant
is so powerful
that if you want to be
president of the United States,
you need to eat corn.
[Hillary Clinton] They
hit the ground running
- to do the job that needs to be done.
- [crowd applauds]
And it starts
right here in Iowa.
[Redzepi] Why?
Because the state of Iowa is where the
American presidential election begins.
But the politics of corn
were forever changed
on December 8th, 1993,
when Bill Clinton signed the
North American Free Trade Act,
also known as NAFTA,
allowing a free flow of products
between the US, Canada and Mexico.
Now we must recognize that the only
way for a wealthy nation to grow richer
is to export.
To simply find new customers for
the products and services it makes.
[Redzepi] With that
stroke of a pen,
Clinton all but guaranteed
American industrialized
corn's rise to dominance,
both north and south
of its borders.
[Sturtz] Landus, this year, will handle
roughly 250 million bushels of corn,
which equates to 12 billion
600,000 pounds of grain.
We'll service probably 30 to
50 farmers throughout the year.
That's good, Al. That's good.
It's a very small percentage
of the crop grown in Iowa.
[Redzepi] The passage of NAFTA
had a dramatic effect on America's
relationship with Mexico.
Practically overnight, trade between
these two countries exploded.
[engineer, in
Spanish] Good evening.
We have 110 units.
[Redzepi, in English] US
corn poured into Mexico.
Mexican farmers struggled to keep
up with this new corn economy.
Within a decade, a million
farmers were out of work.
Today, 80% of the corn
consumed by Mexico
is imported from the US.
And a culture built on corn
has been fundamentally changed.
As American corn enveloped most of
Mexico, waves of resistance took shape.
[crowd, in Spanish]
Get out of the country!
We want tortillas!
We want corn!
Multinational corporations,
get out of our country!
[Redzepi, in English] People protested
for the legions of small farmers
who lost their livelihoods
[in Spanish] Get out of
Latin America, Monsanto!
[Redzepi, in English] for the
threat to local culture and traditions,
and for the tremendous toll
that large-scale monocrop
farming takes on the environment.
[in Spanish] Without
corn, there is no country!
[Redzepi, in English] The barrage
of environmental information
can be overwhelming.
UN reports. Academic
studies. Newspaper headlines.
Doom and gloom.
I feel it myself often.
But there's no denying anymore
that how we produce our food
comes at a high cost
to our landscape, to
our food producers,
to the ingredients themselves.
You can't help but wonder,
"Is this the right way forward?"
[farmers chattering in Mayan]
[Ricardo, in Spanish] The seeds
are the heritage of our country
and of the whole world.
They are like blood.
We care for our blood the same
way we care for our seeds.
Because they are life.
We produce everything
naturally, with no chemicals.
[in Mayan] This is the
natural color of this seed.
Even the tortilla
will have that color.
I like to plant this color
because it is in great demand.
[in Spanish] Everything is done
by hand. No machines at all.
But the whole harvest
is about quality.
Not quantity, but quality.
I like to say that we're
rich, not in money,
but in food.
[Redzepi, in English] The way we grow
food has been moving in one direction.
Bigger farms, fewer farmers.
Seemingly less concern for
flavor and biodiversity.
But what if there's
a different path?
Emerging collectives
like Traspatio Maya
have helped connect milpa farmers
with restaurants and buyers
across the world.
They're using modern techniques,
from social media to better
distribution channels,
to bring the best ingredients
to a wider population.
There's something valuable to
be taken from this approach.
One that fuses the wisdom of the
past with the best tools of today.
What if small corn harnessed
the technological powers and
political savviness of big corn?
What if big corn learned
from the ancient knowledge and
time-tested practices of small corn?
This is more than
a romantic idea.
It's a reality unfolding
across the food world.
Brazilian coffee farmers.
Indian rice growers.
Natural wine producers
across Europe.
There's definitely a new
movement taking place,
one where a closer relationship
to nature is at the forefront.
Practices like carbon
cropping and crop rotation
can help farms produce
more with less.
It's not just good stewardship,
good ethics or good marketing.
It can be good business.
[Colton] My dad, he'd always tell
me to take pride in what you do.
Don't ever do anything,
you know, with half effort.
I mean, he can be a real
stickler sometimes too, you know.
But, I mean, in today's world,
in this kind of operation we're
on, you know, you have to be.
You know, there's
no room for playing.
I mean, you either do
it right or you don't.
Up here, we're very fortunate
enough to have rich, black soil.
There's a lot of nutrients in it.
It's just good soil to grow crops.
When I went to college, I took
an environmental science class.
They talked about how if we
put a cover crop on the soil,
it keeps all the nitrates out of
groundwater and it's good organic matter.
There's just a whole bunch of
different aspects that it's good for.
So we tried it one year
and it didn't hurt us.
There wasn't a huge
yield difference.
It's good for the soil, it's
less emissions in the earth.
Overall, I think it's gonna be better
than what we thought it would be.
Like, oh, yeah, that's
that's pretty good.
[Tim] When I was
younger, farming,
I wasn't worried about
doing the cover crop thing,
trying to help all
the environment out.
That wasn't my number one.
Now, I look at that a lot more.
[Tim] What is it, spring-loaded?
Part of it's my age, but part of it's
just the way agriculture has went too.
We all have to do
the right thing.
[rooster crows]
[Redzepi] Ancient Mayans believed
that the gods fashioned humans
from kernels of corn.
Thousands of years later,
corn is still at the
center of life here.
[Ricardo, in Spanish] They say
that the day when corn disappears,
people will also start to
disappear, little by little.
The knowledge that we have, we
did not learn it all at once.
It was given to us little by
little, step by step, year by year.
If we can teach others,
they'll go and teach others
how to do it as well.
It's very important because
nature is from God.
We must not lose our culture.
[Redzepi, in English] That first bite here
in southern Mexico nearly 20 years ago
wasn't just a great meal.
It was a lesson in what
food at its best can be.
A taste of the world around us
and a window into the
lives of those who made it.
A freshly slaughtered pig
unearthed after hours of
slow cooking over hot coals.
Marinated with achiote
seeds and sour oranges
plucked from the front yard.
Served on a warm tortilla made
with corn from the family's milpa.
A squeeze of lime.
A hint of chili.
A slice of marinated onion.
Could this be as close to
a perfect bite as anything?
Maybe you've had a
moment like this.
One that tastes like the best
meal on earth at that second
because it can only
happen right there.
Not every meal is a revelation,
but every bite can
be a small vote
for the kind of world
that we want to live in.
Change is inevitable
but sometimes, when
looking at food,
the best innovations
have already happened.
Somewhere between the
cornfields seen from space
and the milpas hidden
to the untrained eye
is a version of corn that suggests a
more delicious and promising future.
What if that future was
the best of both worlds?
The monoculture and the milpa.
That happened to me in the cornfields
of the Yucatán nearly 20 years ago.
It was my first trip to Mexico,
and I found myself in the
tiny village of Yaxuná,
where a family cooked me a
meal I can still taste today.
A mind-bending mix of
flavors and textures
teased from ingredients grown
just meters from where we ate.
And there, at the center of
it all, the mighty tortilla.
Made just minutes before, from
corn grown in the backyard.
It was a revelation.
So different from the hard shell
tortillas I'd suffered in Denmark.
It made me think,
"What have I been
missing out on?"
Turns out a lot.
Corn originated in Mexico
approximately 10,000 years ago,
growing as a wild
grass called teocintle.
Today, it covers more of the
Earth's surface than any other crop,
serving as a vital staple, from
the Americas to central Africa.
But corn is more than food.
It's one of the building
blocks of modern life.
A multibillion-dollar
global industry
positioned at the center of
our industrialized world.
How did corn become the most
powerful plant on earth?
And what does it mean for
the future of food, and us?
For ten days every August,
Des Moines is home to America's
greatest love letter to corn,
the Iowa State Fair.
Almost everything you
can eat or drink here
is made from some form of corn.
But it all starts with the cob.
Golden, delicious,
sweet corn kernels
bathed in a tide
of melted butter.
There are few food memories
that compare to that first
bite of fresh summer corn.
The pop of the kernels
paired with butter.
The combination of
sweet, savory, starchy.
As a bite, it's
close to perfect.
But what makes corn truly unique
is the myriad of other foods
this ingredient
can transform into.
It thickens. It sweetens.
It emulsifies. It adds texture.
This is due to three main
components: sugar, fat and starch.
Fat is easy. Squeeze the kernels
hard enough and you get oil.
Corn's sugar turns into syrup.
Just as sweet as table sugar
and cheaper to produce.
Starch gives crunch.
If you eat something crispy or flaky,
chances are you have cornstarch to thank.
All told, scientists have
found a way to transform corn
into hundreds of
food derivatives.
That's how it came to dominate
the State Fair in Iowa
and grocery stores
across the country.
More than a quarter of the
items in an American supermarket
contain corn in some
form or another.
[country music playing]
[guest] I'll give
you all the sauce.
[guest 2] Make sure
they don't give him any.
[guest] I'll take one of those.
- [guest 3] This one?
- [guest] Yeah. That'd be good.
[guest 2] You're gonna eat some?
[guest 4] I reckon we could
get one or two or three.
- [guest 3] There you go.
- [guest 4] It's not hot.
- The veggies aren't hot.
- [guest 3] There you go.
[guest] Grandma needs
potatoes too, Colton.
[laughs] Who wants to eat?
- [guest 4] Here, Dad.
- [guest 2] Here, honey. I can take that.
- [guest] I got it.
- [guest 3 laughs]
[guest 2] This is one
of her best dishes,
so she makes this for us
once every couple of weeks.
[moos]
[vehicle approaches]
[snorting]
I've been farming for 34 years.
When I was two years old,
Dad used to take me with
him on the tractors.
Loved it ever since.
[snorting]
I would be the fourth generation.
My boy would be the fifth.
Grandpa gave it to Dad.
Dad helped me get started.
I want to help my
boys get started.
[moos]
Corn is king. That's what they
say in Iowa. Corn is king.
Our soil and our weather patterns
is very conducive to corn,
and we can really
optimize the corn plant.
That's our number one
crop for most Iowa farms.
Most Midwestern farms, really.
Colton, come here
and look at this one.
Oh, right here.
I mean, look at this. Uh
Here we go. Look at this
bad boy. Now we're cooking.
[Tim] When you can plant
one little, tiny seed
and in 160 days,
you have this ginormous stalk
with this ginormous ear on it.
I mean, that's kinda cool.
It makes you so thankful
that you did this.
That's gonna be good
corn. It's super big.
[Colton] Yes, sir.
That's big corn there.
[Tim] Yep.
[Redzepi] Looking out at the vast
fields of the American Midwest,
it's hard not to be
impressed by corn.
We grow more of it than any
other ingredient in the world.
1.1 billion tons globally.
From the Far East to southern
Europe to Latin America,
corn dominates the
agricultural landscape.
But no country produces
more than the United States,
where the cornfields alone would
cover an area the size of Germany.
It's so much corn, satellite sensors can
see it photosynthesizing from outer space.
[Tim] Growing corn,
to be good at it,
you have to pay really a
lot of attention to detail.
It's definitely not just hooking up a
plow to a tractor like it used to be.
It's much more
complex than that.
We need to maximize every
acre to get the maximum yield,
so it can be profitable for us but it
can still be cheaper for the consumer.
Nobody quite understands us,
but we have so many dollars tied
up in the equipment we're running
and the cost of land.
You know, one tractor could cost
500 to 600 thousand dollars.
[engine starts]
So you got so many dollars
wrapped up doing what we're doing.
[leaves rustling]
This is actually gonna
be better than up north.
Remember we thought up north is gonna
be the best because of more rain but
I think this is gonna be really
good. It looks like to me.
What's it yield-wise?
It's from 220 to 270.
[Redzepi] Industrialized
corn is all around us.
We consume it all the time,
often without even knowing it.
We brush our teeth with it.
We wash our clothes with it.
And we stock our medicine
cabinets with it.
Many of us, whether we know it or
not, fill our gas tanks with corn.
No creation had a bigger
impact on corn's future
than the development of ethanol.
Made by fermenting
corn into alcohol.
[rumbling]
Nearly half of all US corn goes
into making this potent fuel.
And fuel is just one of corn's thousands
of manifestations in our modern world.
[machine whirring]
Corn is found in everything.
From bourbon to battery acid.
Crayons to cardboard.
Antibiotics.
Fiberglass. Matches.
Detergent. Cork.
Insecticides. Linoleum.
Cigarettes. Ceramics.
Candles. Tires.
Aspirin. Shoe polish. Makeup.
And yes, even fireworks.
When all is said and done,
less than 10% of US
corn is grown for food.
It can be hard to remember
where corn comes from.
But in many places
throughout the world,
traditional hand-grown corn
still provides a way of life,
the same way it has
for thousands of years.
[laughs]
[crunches]
[in Spanish] Mmm. So tasty.
- See?
- Mine.
[gasps] Yes, it's
yours. [Chuckles]
[Ricardo] Since I was eight or ten
years old, I have been helping my dad
clear the fields, cutting
down trees, planting,
all the work of the cornfield.
That's what we were doing.
We didn't have other work.
[Redzepi, in English] Since the
earliest days of the Mayans,
communities across the Yucatán
have depended on traditional
farming techniques
with corn as the main staple
among dozens of crops.
Farmers like
Francisco and Ricardo
are guardians of an ancient system
of agriculture called the milpa,
an interconnected and finely
tuned system of plants and people
where everything serves
a specific purpose.
[Ricardo, in Spanish] Since
we began working the land
Mmm. Delicious!
our great-grandparents,
who gave us the seeds told us:
"When you plant the corn,"
"you have to plant navy
beans, beans or squash."
Because the seeds can use
each other for support
when they sprout.
The beans wrap around the corncobs so
they are held tightly and won't fall down.
It's like someone who
is recently married.
They're hugging,
they are kissing.
It's the same with the
seeds we're planting here.
They have to be planted with each
other so they can hug each other
when the beautiful
seeds start to sprout.
And when everything dies
and the next planting
season arrives,
it becomes fertilizer and helps
to reinvigorate the worn-out soil.
[Francisco] It's great
that you keep your seeds,
because once you lose them
you'll depend on the companies!
[Ricardo] Mm-hmm.
[Francisco] Look at
the silk on that one!
- [Ricardo] Mm-hmm.
- Look at these ears of corn!
[Francisco] The milpa is
important for the whole world.
That means everything,
intertwined together.
It's not just for humans, but
also for animals and birds.
It motivates me to
work even harder.
It's our duty and
it's our culture.
[in Mayan] Well, the sun is
warming up. I'm leaving now.
Are you leaving?
- I'm leaving. That's it for today.
- Okay, then.
[Francisco] I'll call you
tomorrow to come down here.
[Ricardo] Okay.
- And we'll both be here, together.
- [Francisco] That's great.
[Redzepi, in English] The
most important contrast
between commodity corn and milpa
corn isn't the corn itself.
It's the ecosystem
surrounding it.
In a milpa, corn grows alongside
other plants like beans and squash,
each playing a supporting role
in a world where the sum
is greater than its parts.
I think we all know that
big-scale agriculture
comes with a series of problems.
[in Spanish] Such
beautiful soil.
[Redzepi, in English] It can rob
the soil of nutrients and water
and threaten biodiversity.
And don't get me
started on flavor.
Polycultures like the
milpa can do the opposite.
They create richer,
more nutrient-dense soil
and play host to a vibrant
mix of flora and fauna.
Surprisingly, milpas can
also be wildly efficient.
It's complex, but in
the best examples,
they can yield six times more calories
than a farm that grows only corn.
And I believe it
tastes so much better.
Richer soil. More
diversity. Higher yields.
More deliciousness.
What's not to love?
[Maria, in Spanish] Corn is
very important here in our town.
The majority of us work
with corn every day.
These traditions are very old.
My ancestors: my grandmothers, my
great-grandmothers and my mother,
all of these generations
made tortillas.
Having corn is essential.
Without corn
we are nothing.
[Redzepi, in English] Long
ago, in early Mesoamerica,
farmers and cooks found a way to
tap into corn's true potential.
It's called nixtamalization.
A process of soaking the kernels
in a mixture of water and
wood ash or limestone.
A revolutionary technique
that unlocked corn's nutrients
and created a super food that
an entire region survived on.
They were shaped into masa dough
and created what I consider one
of the most perfect of all foods.
The corn tortilla.
Like baking good bread,
you'd think making a
tortilla should be simple.
But it isn't.
To me a great tortilla is
soft with a delicate chew.
Almost melting on the tongue.
It's fragrant,
nourishing, versatile.
A staple of most Mexican meals.
But tortillas are
just the beginning.
Corn can be shaped into
thousands of dishes.
The conduit behind
what is surely
one of the world's most
incredible cuisines.
It's easy to see why corn is
Mexico's most revered ingredient.
But how did it go from this
to an industrialized super crop?
[presenter] Good
morning, everyone,
and welcome to the 2022
Farm Progress Show.
[applause, cheering]
[march playing]
[presenter] Today,
we're excited to unveil
the industry's first
autonomous spreader,
right behind you.
[applause]
[farmer] What do you think?
There's nobody in it.
- Yeah.
- [march playing]
[presenter 2] I work here because
autonomy is gonna change farming.
I can tell you, even as a farmer
myself, it is hard to find labor.
[vendor] It'll have
six cameras on it,
three in the front, three in
the back, for a whole 360 view.
And it sees it, analyzes it,
and actually the system learns more
from being out in the field and working.
- I'll be darned.
- Yeah.
[narrator] It's all
about technology.
What's going to make a
farmer more productive?
What's going to make them be able to grow
more corn so they can feed the world?
- [music stops]
- [audience applauds]
[Redzepi] Food has always been a
powerful engine for innovation.
What better reason
to invent new tools
than to get more food, faster?
A major turning point
for corn came in 1837,
when an Illinois blacksmith
found a broken saw blade
and forged it into the
world's first steel plow.
That man's name was John Deere.
The invention of the steel plow
was part of a series
of profound changes
that altered our
relationship to nature.
Instead of working with nature's
forces, we tried to dominate them.
Everything possible
to maximize output.
In the wake of World War II,
Americans turned the weapons of
war into weapons of agriculture.
Poisonous gases
became pesticides.
Tanks became tractors.
Ammonium nitrate used to make
explosives became fertilizer.
But corn needed more than
technology to become king.
It needed political support.
Which it received in the form of
hundreds of billions of dollars' worth
of government assistance.
More than any other ingredient
in the United States.
We've proved our ingenuity
time and time again.
Streamlining our food system
to make food cheaper and
more plentiful for all.
And perhaps no ingredient
has thrived in this system
as much as corn.
Today, corn is no
longer just a plant.
It's an all-encompassing
industry.
No sector of society is
outside the reach of corn.
In fact, the plant
is so powerful
that if you want to be
president of the United States,
you need to eat corn.
[Hillary Clinton] They
hit the ground running
- to do the job that needs to be done.
- [crowd applauds]
And it starts
right here in Iowa.
[Redzepi] Why?
Because the state of Iowa is where the
American presidential election begins.
But the politics of corn
were forever changed
on December 8th, 1993,
when Bill Clinton signed the
North American Free Trade Act,
also known as NAFTA,
allowing a free flow of products
between the US, Canada and Mexico.
Now we must recognize that the only
way for a wealthy nation to grow richer
is to export.
To simply find new customers for
the products and services it makes.
[Redzepi] With that
stroke of a pen,
Clinton all but guaranteed
American industrialized
corn's rise to dominance,
both north and south
of its borders.
[Sturtz] Landus, this year, will handle
roughly 250 million bushels of corn,
which equates to 12 billion
600,000 pounds of grain.
We'll service probably 30 to
50 farmers throughout the year.
That's good, Al. That's good.
It's a very small percentage
of the crop grown in Iowa.
[Redzepi] The passage of NAFTA
had a dramatic effect on America's
relationship with Mexico.
Practically overnight, trade between
these two countries exploded.
[engineer, in
Spanish] Good evening.
We have 110 units.
[Redzepi, in English] US
corn poured into Mexico.
Mexican farmers struggled to keep
up with this new corn economy.
Within a decade, a million
farmers were out of work.
Today, 80% of the corn
consumed by Mexico
is imported from the US.
And a culture built on corn
has been fundamentally changed.
As American corn enveloped most of
Mexico, waves of resistance took shape.
[crowd, in Spanish]
Get out of the country!
We want tortillas!
We want corn!
Multinational corporations,
get out of our country!
[Redzepi, in English] People protested
for the legions of small farmers
who lost their livelihoods
[in Spanish] Get out of
Latin America, Monsanto!
[Redzepi, in English] for the
threat to local culture and traditions,
and for the tremendous toll
that large-scale monocrop
farming takes on the environment.
[in Spanish] Without
corn, there is no country!
[Redzepi, in English] The barrage
of environmental information
can be overwhelming.
UN reports. Academic
studies. Newspaper headlines.
Doom and gloom.
I feel it myself often.
But there's no denying anymore
that how we produce our food
comes at a high cost
to our landscape, to
our food producers,
to the ingredients themselves.
You can't help but wonder,
"Is this the right way forward?"
[farmers chattering in Mayan]
[Ricardo, in Spanish] The seeds
are the heritage of our country
and of the whole world.
They are like blood.
We care for our blood the same
way we care for our seeds.
Because they are life.
We produce everything
naturally, with no chemicals.
[in Mayan] This is the
natural color of this seed.
Even the tortilla
will have that color.
I like to plant this color
because it is in great demand.
[in Spanish] Everything is done
by hand. No machines at all.
But the whole harvest
is about quality.
Not quantity, but quality.
I like to say that we're
rich, not in money,
but in food.
[Redzepi, in English] The way we grow
food has been moving in one direction.
Bigger farms, fewer farmers.
Seemingly less concern for
flavor and biodiversity.
But what if there's
a different path?
Emerging collectives
like Traspatio Maya
have helped connect milpa farmers
with restaurants and buyers
across the world.
They're using modern techniques,
from social media to better
distribution channels,
to bring the best ingredients
to a wider population.
There's something valuable to
be taken from this approach.
One that fuses the wisdom of the
past with the best tools of today.
What if small corn harnessed
the technological powers and
political savviness of big corn?
What if big corn learned
from the ancient knowledge and
time-tested practices of small corn?
This is more than
a romantic idea.
It's a reality unfolding
across the food world.
Brazilian coffee farmers.
Indian rice growers.
Natural wine producers
across Europe.
There's definitely a new
movement taking place,
one where a closer relationship
to nature is at the forefront.
Practices like carbon
cropping and crop rotation
can help farms produce
more with less.
It's not just good stewardship,
good ethics or good marketing.
It can be good business.
[Colton] My dad, he'd always tell
me to take pride in what you do.
Don't ever do anything,
you know, with half effort.
I mean, he can be a real
stickler sometimes too, you know.
But, I mean, in today's world,
in this kind of operation we're
on, you know, you have to be.
You know, there's
no room for playing.
I mean, you either do
it right or you don't.
Up here, we're very fortunate
enough to have rich, black soil.
There's a lot of nutrients in it.
It's just good soil to grow crops.
When I went to college, I took
an environmental science class.
They talked about how if we
put a cover crop on the soil,
it keeps all the nitrates out of
groundwater and it's good organic matter.
There's just a whole bunch of
different aspects that it's good for.
So we tried it one year
and it didn't hurt us.
There wasn't a huge
yield difference.
It's good for the soil, it's
less emissions in the earth.
Overall, I think it's gonna be better
than what we thought it would be.
Like, oh, yeah, that's
that's pretty good.
[Tim] When I was
younger, farming,
I wasn't worried about
doing the cover crop thing,
trying to help all
the environment out.
That wasn't my number one.
Now, I look at that a lot more.
[Tim] What is it, spring-loaded?
Part of it's my age, but part of it's
just the way agriculture has went too.
We all have to do
the right thing.
[rooster crows]
[Redzepi] Ancient Mayans believed
that the gods fashioned humans
from kernels of corn.
Thousands of years later,
corn is still at the
center of life here.
[Ricardo, in Spanish] They say
that the day when corn disappears,
people will also start to
disappear, little by little.
The knowledge that we have, we
did not learn it all at once.
It was given to us little by
little, step by step, year by year.
If we can teach others,
they'll go and teach others
how to do it as well.
It's very important because
nature is from God.
We must not lose our culture.
[Redzepi, in English] That first bite here
in southern Mexico nearly 20 years ago
wasn't just a great meal.
It was a lesson in what
food at its best can be.
A taste of the world around us
and a window into the
lives of those who made it.
A freshly slaughtered pig
unearthed after hours of
slow cooking over hot coals.
Marinated with achiote
seeds and sour oranges
plucked from the front yard.
Served on a warm tortilla made
with corn from the family's milpa.
A squeeze of lime.
A hint of chili.
A slice of marinated onion.
Could this be as close to
a perfect bite as anything?
Maybe you've had a
moment like this.
One that tastes like the best
meal on earth at that second
because it can only
happen right there.
Not every meal is a revelation,
but every bite can
be a small vote
for the kind of world
that we want to live in.
Change is inevitable
but sometimes, when
looking at food,
the best innovations
have already happened.
Somewhere between the
cornfields seen from space
and the milpas hidden
to the untrained eye
is a version of corn that suggests a
more delicious and promising future.
What if that future was
the best of both worlds?
The monoculture and the milpa.