Artifact 6
Brady Gannon
Ireland in the 1800s was a prosperous land and the people were generally happy, that is until the potato blight hit. There was a large population boom where the Irish population more than doubled going from 3.5 million people to approximately 8 million people. The farmers and agricultural workers of the land could not keep up with this increase in population. The increase in the yield of potatoes lead to less healthy crops making them vulnerable to disease.
Once disease ravaged the potato crops, it is estimated that around one million people perished. The Irish were known potato people, they would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and some would survive on milk and potatoes alone. Without their main source of nutrition, came starvation and disease. Many Irish men and women fled the country because of the conditions, which severely hurt the Irish economy and political scene.
If the Irish were able to genetically modify their crops, perhaps we would not have seen these incredibly detrimental effects. The practice of genetically modifying crops as a means of pest control is widely used today and we have not experienced famine like this since the use of GMOs were deployed
Help Received: Potato blight powerpoint
Twelve diseases that changed our world