Question

Soon after the Columbian Exchange began, European ships carried potatoes from the Americas to Europe. Which was an intentional consequence of that action? Please Answer!

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct response is the fourth option. People in northern and western Europe started planting and eating potatoes as an important source of nutrition.

Explanation:

Potatoes are a tuber crop that originates from the Andean region. As of 2014, potatoes are the fourth-largest food crop in the world with the others at the top of the list being maize (corn), wheat, and rice. Potatoes became especially important to the cultures of Northern Europe, especially Ireland, Scotland and the Scandanavian countries that have short growing seasons and have populations who need products that store well for long winters. This is one of the properties of the potato. Unfortunately, there was a large famine called the Great Irish Famine due to a fungus that infested the potato harvest in 1845. There was not much genetic diversity of the species that were introduced and this contributed to the scale of the collapse.