Christmas Specials | Cereal killer

The life-giving, death-dealing power of corn

Maize fed ancient civilisations, then wiped out 100,000 American Southerners. What went wrong?

A woman standing in a cornfield carrying a bunch of corn under her arm
Illustration: Adams Carvalho
|THE CAROLINAS

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This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “The life-giving, death-dealing grain”

From the December 23rd 2023 edition

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