Here are two examples of corn stalks coming out of the ground. One has brace roots, the other has none. The example on top is the one with brace roots. Brace roots form when the plant is not getting the diet that it is genetically programmed to receive. The brace rooted corn stalk in the picture, was grown in poor soil. I have grown sweet corn varieties in our rich garden soil for several years. The corn stalks did not have brace roots. The seed was from home gardening catalogs. One spring I had to buy seed from a commercial farming supplier. The butter and sugar variety grew brace roots in the same rich soil. The corn was so poor tasting that I didn't eat it. The leaves, the stalks and the ears were riddled with holes and worm damage. This corn could not get the nourishment that it was genetically designed to receive from my rich soil. It had been designed for commercial agriculture, where the fertilizers are factory fabricated. The nitrogen that it was genetically designed to utilize was from a petrochemical source. My rich soil only had microbially manufactured nitrogen fertilizer. It rejected this and would not grow well without the kind of fertilizer it was genetically designed to grow on. The potassium that my soil supplied was from microbial breakdown of organic matter in the soil. The potassium that it genetically demanded was potassium chloride. My soil had none of this type of potassium. Over the decades, the shift to the use of factory fabricated fertilizers, and away from the use of microbially produced fertilizers, has caused the genes of the corn plants to adapt themselves to these factory fabricated fertilizers. They have lost the ability to utilize microbially produced fertilizers.