Since Native Americans began breeding corn, the goal has been to create the perfect ear: one that tasted good, produced large, uniform kernels, and could survive difficult weather conditions. But how do you breed the perfect ear of corn? And even once you have it, how do you ensure that all its offspring will be equally good?

In the early 1900’s, G.H. Shull, a geneticist at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, discovered that you could inbreed corn by self-fertilizing it. After several generations of inbreeding, the offspring become genetically identical. While this creates consistent corn from one generation to the next, it also creates a problem. The inbred corn tends to be less healthy than the original corn, due to the greater likelihood of harmful genes becoming expressed.

But Shull next realized that if you cross lines of inbred corn together, the resulting “hybrid” corn can be healthier than the inbred parents, while still maintaining the desired qualities of the parent strains. This advantage is called “hybrid vigor”. Through this method, corn can be genetically similar while still maintaining selected traits. Inspired by Shull’s work, D.F. Jones, working at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, a national lab receiving federal support, realized that crossing two hybrid corn strains has an advantage. These “double-hybrids” have increased genetic diversity, and therefore less disease susceptibility, while still maintaining consistency across generations of corn.

The United States Department of Agriculture funded the mass production of different varieties of hybrid corn. In the 20’s and 30’s, Iowa State College and Ohio State University received grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop hybrid corn suitable for widespread use. Soon after its discovery, hybrid and double hybrid corn quickly became in high demand, thanks to its higher yields, improved disease resistance, and greater uniformity. Using hybrid corn today, farmers produce far more corn in less land than was possible previously. Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funds the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, which provides funding for new types of hybrid corn for the changing environment.