Ahliyah Williams

07/16/19

Dr. Hinks

Help Received: NONE Ahliyah Williams

   

 

There’s No Pot of Gold at The End of The Rainbow. 

 

Imagine eating only potatoes every single day. Now imagine that one food that you depend on not being edible enough to eat. The worst thing about it was that the potatoes were still there, but they were edible or safe to eat. In the Irish Potato Blight, about 1 million people died due to a fungus that made all potatoes completely inedible. The blight caused people to become weak, which resulted in other diseases. Immigrating to America was done by many Irish people. The new technologies in the world today have gained awareness and has been able to prevent further blights that may emerge in potatoes. 

 

Why couldnt they just eat other crops one may ask. Well, in the 1800s people of Ireland were so poor that they only ate one thing, the potato. The potato was the cheapest and healthiest thing that could keep these people surviving. The potato was not only convenient to grow, but the potatoes high fiber and vitamin consistency made it a food that people could depend on during hard times in Ireland. The potato had suddenly went from normal to mush. All throughout Ireland, the only food that they had, was gone. During the potato blight, many political people were curious about this sudden potato famine. British scientists begin to come up with different ways to fix the blight that was attacking the potato crops. Dr. Lyon Playfair thought that a chemical could prevent the potatoes from going bad. Playfair and other scientists even issued pamphlets to Irish Farmers explaining how to fix this blight. Of course, during this time, none of that worked because no one knew the real reason of the blight. The consequences for this disease were huge. Many people couldnt afford to live in their homes anymore and had no place to stay. The worst consequence of them all was a creeping infectious disease that was waiting in the dark to infect the Irish people, the fever. When people were becoming weak from hunger, their immune system was also becoming weak. Diseases, such as the fever, are guests to the weak and sickly hosts body. Because of little opportunities the Irish people subsquantianly immigrated to the U.S. Bloody spews, dead pigs from the potatoes, people left Ireland for a better living. Irish people lived in tenements that could house many people at once. With that came uncomfortability and little air, but it was better than what they were originally living in back in Ireland. 

 

After the destructive potato blight that had caused millions of deaths in Ireland and millions of people to immigrate to America, there are benefits. With the event such as the potato blight, scientists are able to make a fungicide that has to be sprayed on potatoes to prevent the blight from forming in them. Genetically modified potatoes are now here. They are resistant to the blight. The benefits of the GMO potato is that it will be able to keep potatoes free from blight and available for people to eat. There are risks to GMOs like certain speculate health concerns like, infertility problems or immune problems.

All in all, the potato blight was an event not only in Irish history, but U.S history that caused many people of Ireland to die or emigrate from their homes. The blight was such a cruel monster that completely demolished and wiped out, unapologetically, the only thing that the people survived on to survive. Due to the lack of knowledge that people had during the potato blight, there was nothing no one could do to stop it. Now, with the many advanced technologies that have been introduced it is possible to stop the blight from affecting potatoes now by using GMOs. GMOS can have it consequences and benefits, but for the most part I bet that the people of Ireland would do anything to stop their family members from dying by just using GMOs. GMOs certainly has its consequences such as immune problems, but it has done so much more good in this case.  

 

 

References: 

 

(2019). Joel Mokyr. Great Famine. Britannica.

(2010). Jacob Riis. Tenements. History.

(2018). Michael Edwards. GMO Potatoes Are Here. Organic Consumers Association. 

Health Risks. Institute for Responsible Technology.