ABSTRACT
The fortuitous ‘discovery’ of the American hemisphere by Christopher Columbus in 1492 opened the door for the largest and most portentous dissemination of agrobiodiversity in history, involving for the first time the great centers of crop origins and diversity in both the Old and New Worlds. The sheer number of species participating in this exchange, and their impacts on the economies, cultures and diets of their adopted lands, remains unprecedented. In the ensuing five centuries, the widespread adoption of these crops has given rise to a truly global interdependence on crop genetic resources.
This chapter examines the circumstances that favored or discouraged the assimilation of imported cultigens, and discusses the eventual impact that the introduced crops had on foreign agroecosystems, cuisines and economies. Also presented are modern examples of transoceanic introductions or expansions of exotic crops that, until recently, had remained little known or underutilized outside their areas of origin.
A significant number of local cultigens have not yet made the transition to other continents, and some conclusions are drawn regarding the nature, conservation status and development potential of some of these underutilized crop species that represent important options for increasing the resilience of farming systems in the face of climate change. Moreover, the chapter serves to illustrate the widespread historical and potential future benefits that have been, and continue to be, derived from intercontinental germplasm exchange and adoption.
