Maize

Description

Columbus did not realize that the gift of maize was far more valuable than the spices or gold he hoped to find. He had no way of knowing that the history of maize traced back some 8,000 years or that it represented the most remarkable plant breeding accomplishment of all time. He might have been embarrassed if he had understood that then, as now, this plant developed by peoples he judged poor and uncivilized far outstripped in productivity any of the cereals bred by Old World farmers wheat, rice, sorghum, barley, and rye. Were he alive today, he would certainly be astonished to see the extent to which the advent of maize has affected land use, food production, cuisine, and population growth around the world.