In recent years the productive arrangement of maize in Sergipe has undergone great transformations and the state has been highlighted both by the expansion of cultivated area and by the increase of productivity. There are a number of important works related to maize, however, the focus has always been on increasing productivity and the possible environmental implications. However, it must be recognized that any productive process involves other appropriate political, social, and institutional dimensions to be addressed and the presence of the food issue in development processes must be recognized. Based on this understanding, our objective with this research is to analyze the transformations that occurred during the last decades in the relations of coproduction established by the family-based farmers of the semi-arid sergipe with the corn and its repercussions, both with respect to the role played by this crop in the organization of their productive systems as well as in their food practices, seeking to identify the factors that converged to a reconfiguration of these relations in an environment marked by a growing expansion of corn monoculture. We will give special attention to couscous, considering that when we approach the characteristics and the relationship between material and symbolic food, we can broaden our understanding of the possible social consequences of a food that has become linked to the global circuits of commodities