Artifact 5

The importance of the potatoes was like no other vegetable I have ever seen before in Ireland. Potatoes were legitimately used in every meal and people depended on potatoes to live. They were a high yield crop producing a very healthy food with little labor investment. Many of the Irish people lived alone off potatoes and milk because the two together provide all the daily nutrients needed. By the 1840’s about half of the Irish population is dependent on the potato to live.

The societal factor that lead to the Irish potato blight would be being poor. This is because the poor could only afford to eat potatoes because this was an extremely cheap and nutritional thing to eat for everyone. Since potatoes were a low maintenance crop little effort would go into growing them which also lead to the famine. From 1845 to 1852 the Irish potato production was overpowered by the blight. The blight accounted for up to one half of the crop loss of all the potatoes planted in 1845. In 1846 the blight accounted for three quarters of the crop losses. Seed potatoes became very scarce for many of the following years for all of the people. Between 1845 through 1852 mass starvation, disease, and emigration all occurred because of the blight. More than one million people died through the 8 years of the blight. One million more people emigrated to North America to go where the food and resources are found. People who did not emigrate to north America were becoming malnourished and very susceptible to infections.

Some consequences for mass immigration from Ireland to the U.S. would be economical first and foremost. This is because over a million-people emigrated and left their country to go to a more thriving country to make sure their families were protected and didn’t have to worry about the famine. This was not only hurting them economically but also hurting the country by the farmers and people providing food for others leaving and no one to provide these goods to the normal people.

The pathogen associated with the potato blight was the Phytophthora infestans which is a single cell organism. The circumstances that lead to the vulnerability was low income low maintenance to the potatoes. This lead to them getting infected with the pathogen.

In March 2017, a genetically modified potato was created that was resistant to blight was approved by the FDA and EPA. This potato was modified by slowing the growing process down and putting a chemical in it to prevent the growth of Phytophthora infestan. This is an extremely productive was to make sure the potato growth continues to happen and learn from previous times in history. Although this GMO was created for the potatoes it does come with few downsides one being that the potato cannot grow as fast as they usually do and it makes them more vulnerable to other pathogens but have not yet been affected by them at all.