Although 90% of the corn grown in the US is fed to livestock, it is still one of the most popular grains for cooking and eating, particularly in North and South America. There are different types of corn bred for different purposes-the sweet corn you eat on the cob is actually an immature cereal grain, hominy is treated with lime to remove the hull, and flour corn is used to make cornmeal or polenta. Steel-, stone-, and water-ground corn have had the hull and germ removed while stone-ground corn and polenta both have the germ intact-the closest you'll get to the whole grain in any ground cornmeal.
As is usually the case, the least-refined grains need the most care in storage, and stone-ground corn meal will last only about four months stored in an airtight container away from heat and damp. Other types of cornmeal will last almost indefinitely.
Polenta, one of the most popular grains in Italy, is literally just coarsely ground cornmeal and you can use the two interchangeably. It can be served creamy or cooked until quite dry, formed into cakes and grilled. Grits are the coarsest ground of hominy corn and masa harina is hominy (sometimes also called "posole") that has been ground to fine flour for use in tortillas or tamales.
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