By the time of Columbus maize had already become the staff of life in the New World.

在哥伦布时期,玉米已成为美洲大陆的主食

耶鲁公开课 - 关于食物的心理学、生物学和政治学课程节选

This is an interesting quote about maize from this particular book called Prehistoric Food Production in North America and if you have trouble I'll read it.

这是一句关于玉米的有趣引用,来自于《史前北美食物生产》,如果你们看不请,就让我读一次吧

耶鲁公开课 - 关于食物的心理学、生物学和政治学课程节选

In certain location things were dominated by certain cereals; rice in Asia, wheat in Europe, sorghum and millet in Africa, and maize in the New World.

不同的地方有不同的主食,比如,亚洲主食米饭,欧洲主食小麦,非洲主食高粱和小米,美洲主食玉米

耶鲁公开课 - 关于食物的心理学、生物学和政治学课程节选

You can see in the New World with maize being important how America has become a corn dominated society, even though it's still true that we raise wheat, we raise other things in the United States, and we can import different foods, corn has become an incredibly important constituent of the diet in the U.S.

你能发现玉米在美洲大陆的重要性,那美洲是怎样变成主食玉米的社会的呢,尽管我们仍然种植小麦,在美国也种植其他粮食,而且我们能进口各种不同食物,但是玉米还是变成了,美国人食谱中不可代替的部分

耶鲁公开课 - 关于食物的心理学、生物学和政治学课程节选