The potato was the staple food of Ireland, and arrived from South America during the 16th century. It contained vitamins fiber and carbohydrates which allowed this one plant to feed an entire country. Additionally, it was well-suited to Ireland’s damp climate and a large amount of people could be fed on an extremely small amount of land. This combination of factors caused a population explosion, however the population was very much dependent on the potato crop. In fact, the average consumption was fourteen pounds of potatoes a day. The dependence of the impoverished Irish population on the potato caused it to be seen as a “lazy crop” by the English which caused overpopulation. Their dependence also set the stage for one of the most disastrous famines in human history— the Irish Potato Blight.
The rapid population expansion, which was almost entirely dependent on the potato for sustenance left the Irish with no sufficient alternative food sources. Meanwhile, tensions between the poor Irish farmers and their landlords, rent collectors, and English governors left them with limited options for outside famine relief. While the Irish population was starving to death, the English blamed the Irish for moral failings causing the plague and refused to send aid. In their eyes, the blight was God’s judgement on the inferior Irish civilization. The lack of outside aid forced the landlords to pay for relief, which caused famine victims held in workhouses in order to save money. These workers were fed poorly (on watery gruel) for hard labor and lost their claim to their land. Workhouses also bred diseases such as typhoid fever and dysentery due to poor living conditions which further increased the death toll.
The blight which killed so many people was caused by the oomycete Phytophora infestans— one of the most destructive known plant pathogens. The strain that caused the Irish potato famine (HERB-1) was identified by sequencing the DNA of the pathogen found in preserved leaves of potato plants from Ireland during the blight. It is believed to have come from seed potatoes from Mexico and spread to the rest of the world until it was replaced by another destructive strain in the 1970s. The blight was spread by trillions of quickly-produced spores, which could be carried far by wind and rain, and inattention during salvaging of healthy potatoes that allowed infected potatoes to spread the disease to the healthy crop. The few potatoes that were salvaged had to be eaten, which caused a shortage of seed potatoes that extended the famine.
This plant pathogen ended up killing roughly one million people, but also had a number of other notable effects on the Irish population. There was a pungent stench due to the massive amount of rotting potatoes, and those who tried to eat the affected crop were in agony for hours afterwards. The famine caused by the destruction of over 80% of potato crop caused widespread panic and a sense of hopelessness. The speed with which the disease destroyed the potato crop was astounding (taking place over a matter of days) and resembled a biblical pestilence. The blight swiftly and effectively destroyed the staple of Irish population. Most significantly, several million people emigrated to US and those that stayed behind soon began a small rebellion against their landlords. While this initial rebellion was harshly suppressed by English military the continued anti-English sentiment led to a larger, more militarized rebellion (including acts of terrorism) that led to Ireland’s independence (excluding North Ireland). Those who emigrated from Ireland found a different kind of independence in the U.S.
A large part of those who emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland were educated, well-off people whose contributions to society would be missed in Ireland. It was well-understood at the time that those who left Ireland would not return, and often faced a bleak future (although it was decidedly better than starvation). Immigrants were viewed as dead or lost in their homeland and faced discrimination and appalling living conditions in the U.S. Despite these challenges, Irish laborers had a huge impact on the U.S. These workers helped build key infrastructure such as the transcontinental railroad which allowed America’s population to expand. The Irish eventually became political leaders, even reaching the White House with the Kennedys. The death and starvation caused by the blight had a profound and lasting impact on the history of the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Thankfully in March, 2017 a potato that was given resistance genes taken from a blight-resistant Argentinian potato was approved by the FDA and EPA. The new potato has the same taste, texture, and nutrition as currently available potatoes, reduces use of fungicide (by 50%), has less bruising and black spots, and even has a reduced amount of a potentially-carcinogenic chemical that is produced when potatoes are cooked at high temperatures. There are some legal and environmental concerns regarding the sale of “genetically modified” seeds and the possibility of cross-contamination with nearby fields, but these are relatively minor problems that should be dealt with quickly in order to allow the human race to benefit from all that these new plants have to offer. Despite all of these benefits and advancements, the new potato (along with other newly-developed foods) is facing resistance from some people who do not trust “genetically modified” foods or view them as unethical.
What these people do not realize is that practically all of the food that we eat is “genetically modified” through selective breeding and selection (e.g. discarding food plants and animals with unwanted traits). Through a lack of scientific understanding, these people are hamstringing a potential solution to the growing problem of world hunger in order to solve an imagined “problem” that already affects everything they eat (even organic and gluten-free foods). A perfect (and easily-understood) example of this is breeding larger animals together to produce larger offspring, and not breeding smaller animals. The offspring are “genetically modified” in the sense that the genes relating to traits humans want in their animals (i.e. larger size) are passed on, and the genes relating to traits that humans do not want (i.e. smaller size) are not. Through these natural processes, humans have been “genetically modifying” both plants and animals through for thousands of year. Today, rather than cross-breeding countless generations of potatoes together and hoping that some of them acquire the gene responsible for resistance to potato blight (or hoping that the potato blight magically disappears) we can simply insert the desired gene into the potato’s genetic code. Genetically enhanced foods are simply a more accurate and effective method to produce desired traits in organisms that could replace selective breeding and solve a myriad of problems relating to food production— including the environmental impacts of chemicals such as fungicides.