Posted on 03/05/2007 9:46:07 AM PST by nypokerface
RALEIGH, N.C., March 5 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have determined the fungus-like pathogen that caused the 1840s Irish potato famine originated in the South American Andes.
Professor Jean Beagle Ristaino and colleagues at North Carolina State University compared the sequences of the nuclear and the cellular mitochondria of nearly 100 pathogen samples from South America, Central America, North America and Europe.
The researchers say they created "gene genealogies" that point the finger at an Andean point of origin for the pathogen, which is known as Phytophthora infestans.
The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation and the Fulbright Scholarship program, is detailed online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This is a no-brainer, as potatoes originated in the Andes region; they are not native to Ireland.
We need a better word than famine. It is not a famine when you are exporting food (crops, livestock) from the country affected by the failure of a single crop. The Brits debated about what to do about the "Irish problem" (as if it were a separate country) while the Irish population went from 8M to 4M (1M dead, 3M emigrated).
In the end, the Irish emigration to North America had profound effects on history. Those who went to America found work and helped the country grow, They fought in the Civil War (mostly for the north) and confederate generals after the war said they may have held off the North if they had more Irish troops. So the US may have split in two. After the war, many Irish went west and helped build the trans-continental railroad, which kept the West coast part of the country (Nothing Like it in the World by Ambrose is a great book, BTW). If the US had been 2 or 3 countries at the time of WWI or WWII, would those wars have come to the same conclusion?
Happy St. Pats day
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Yup. There are 2,000 varieties in Peru where the 'Irish potato' originated. Most are resistant to the blight described.
How timely, another thread was just discussing the potato famine. BTW, one contributing factor to the high death toll was the landlords (landowning class) evicting large numbers of tenants for non-payment of rent (after their crop failed and they couldn't pay their rent). It was a scandalous practice to throw starving people out of their homes.
I've heard that for many years.
In fact I've read that there was no genetic variation at all.
All the potatoes in Ireland were from a single potato plant.
In other words the potato blight was a disaster just waiting to happen.
St. Patrick (Erin Go Bragh!)
newadvent.org | 3/17.2007 | staff
Posted on 03/17/2007 10:06:14 AM EDT by kellynla
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1802353/posts
Which, among other things, states: "... Irish Potato Famine, which began in 1845 and occurred as food was being shipped from Ireland to England because the English could afford to pay higher prices."
Of course neither you nor the items listed @ Wikipedia do not mention that @ that time, the Irish were subjugated by the British and did not have either the monetary or other methods to thwart the British.
So what would you call it when over 1 million starve in the midst of plenty? Ireland exported oats and wheat during the famine.
Would the Ukrainian "Famine" in which 10 million people starved while Stalin exported grain qualify?
Maybe a "misallocation of supply and demand" might be better?
AAAAAaaaaaaaa.......
But I do have a source I consider reasonably objective in the matter - it is Woodham-Smith's The Great Hunger - Ireland, 1845-1849. Highly recommended. It pulls no punches as to the role bigotry, hatred, and political repression played in the famine.
Without going too deeply into the book, the famine itself would not have occurred through political repression alone, or through overpopulation on too little land alone, or on overdependence on a single food crop alone, or on a hitherto unknown biological agent alone, but on a catastrophic combination of all of these and more. My point about the grain ships is simply that it is ironic that they have become a symbol of the neglect of the Irish people because they were in actuality intended to be otherwise. Far too many others either disbelieved that there was a famine at all or tried nothing to relieve it until it was far too late. There isn't much excuse for the former - the famine lasted actually for longer than the five years the book chronicles. For the latter there is the weak excuse that governments until then were not really in the business of large-scale famine relief. Two thousand Irish died of starvation in a normal year before the potato crops failed. To us these figures are grotesque, scarcely believable. They are fact.
We don't seem to disagree. Also see ref: http://www.nde.state.ne.us/ss/irish/irish_pf.html Basically the same as Wiki except:
Approved by the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education on September 10th, 1996, for inclusion in the Holocaust and Genocide Curriculum at the secondary level. Revision submitted 11/26/98.
Yeah, my thoughts as well. Huge topic. Best to you.
"So what would you call it when over 1 million starve in the midst of plenty? Ireland exported oats and wheat during the famine."
We are in agreement. How about "Negligent Genocide"? Kind of like "negligent homicide"...
Well all right, but it wasn't negligence it was manifest indifference to the plight of the Irish. Many Englishmen referred to Irish people as uncivilized monkeys.
I'm quite sure these scientists already knew more than NG or your Nan, even when they started. What's different from NG's "surmise," or your long-dead Nan's story, is that these scientists actually identified which fungus was responsible -- not a useless venture at all.
OK, they know where it came from, but how did it get from the South American Andes to Ireland?
Infected potatos on board ships?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.