Corn, Grains, and Wheat

Question: Where did rice cultivation originate?

Answer: Historians have traced the origin of rice cultivation to India in about 3000 BCE. From there it spread in all directions, to Japan, the Philippines, Persia, and Egypt.

Question: What kind of plant is rice?

Answer: Rice probably originated from wild species of grass that grew along the shores of lakes in Africa, India, and southeastern Asia.

Question: Which of these is not a grass?

Answer: The banana is an herb. It grows rapidly, like a grass. Rice, wheat, and maize are kinds of grasses.

Question: What nation consumes the most popcorn?

Answer: Americans consume about 16 billion quarts (60 billion liters) of popcorn a year, far more than do people in any other part of the world, making it the unofficial national snack.

Question: Which of these grains grows natively in North America?

Answer: Wild rice grows in northeastern North America, and its grain, now often considered a delicacy, has long been a staple food of North American Indians.

Question: What is an Italian dish made of corn?

Answer: Polenta is an Italian dish made of corn meal, often mixed with ground chestnuts.

Question: What was the first cereal to be domesticated?

Answer: A kind of wheat called einkorn was first domesticated more than 10,000 years ago in West Asia. Rice followed in East Asia about 9,000 years ago.