Maize, teosinte
No European culture or existence is primally oriented toward corn – rather dairy, and wheat, emmer, barley
And middle eastern, African, Asian, Oceania existences even less so
From the primal story of natives teaching the British to drop a fish in the hole when planting corn, through hoe-cakes and moonshine, tortillas and corn chips, popcorn and corn flakes and high-fructose corn syrup
Though also, tomatoes make us too …
And potatoes, and fish
And beans, and squash, and chocolate, and tobacco
(Tobacco had earlier made the Siberians into Americans)
And sugar, which drove it all crazy …
Sugar cuts across the primal foods and orientations, to create the first truly global network, culture, existence, form of existing – Modernity
Sugar and conquest and slaves made Americans modern
Steven Pavlos Holmes, Ph.D. 