Text | Rogue
Author of Food Changes History (Volumes I and II).
I will try to comb through the stories before, during, and after the Great Irish Famine in the mid-19th century. This is the sixth article in a series, continuous update, your attention and support is my motivation.
In the summer of 1845, near Flanders in Belgium, people found that the potatoes in the field were diseased, and the plants turned brown, blackened and withered. In August, the same condition appeared in the Netherlands, France and other places. That summer, almost all European newspapers were filled with news about this blight. Immediately after, Ireland fell without surprise.
Potato "blight" outbreak
Later studies have found that Phytophthora bacterium, which causes late potato blight, originated in Mexico. European ships brought back guano from Latin America, the "natural fertilizer," and brought dangerous germs back to the continent.
In Peru, workers collect guano, a natural fertilizer
Phytophthora pathogenic will invade potato tubers, not only will it continue to infect the next crop through seed potato chunks, but it will also contaminate the surrounding soil, and then expand its influence farther until it encounters potato varieties with more different traits, it will not stop, but it will still stay in the soil for up to several years.
In the Andes, where the potato originated, there are 4,780 known wild potato species, and in Peru alone, there are more than 3,500 species. Nature has created rich diversity in evolution, but humans have always made few choices. The potatoes that spread early in Europe were all Andean subspecies with almost identical genetic properties, especially in Ireland, where potatoes were grown on a large scale, there was no potato variety with another genetic trait, and there were no other rations to choose from in the pot to ward off the ravages of germs.
In the mountains of the Andes, potatoes are rich in varieties
In October, various urgent reports of the disease on potatoes began to reach the government. On 31 October, the United Kingdom's Parliament held an emergency session, and at the suggestion of Prime Minister Robert Peel, the government first introduced three relief measures:
The government has set up relief committees in Dublin and elsewhere to raise funds to buy food, which can then be resold to the victims, and in case of emergency, food can be distributed free of charge; At the same time, 100,000 pounds was allocated to buy a batch of corn from the United States to be shipped to Ireland, and once the price of grain in the market rose sharply, the corn would be put on the market, in addition to organizing cash-for-work infrastructure construction. These programs are traditional famine relief measures.
Among them, the corn reserves purchased from the United States, calculated at 1 pound per person per day, can feed about 500,000 mouths in 3 months. Judging from the subsequent disaster caused by late blight in Ireland, it is clear that this figure is only a drop in the bucket. Moreover, according to the relief plan, the corn reserves were sold to the victims at an affordable price, but after they were sold, they were no longer replenished.
In May 1846, the first winter and spring of the poor potato harvest were difficult to survive, and the green and yellow rations had already arrived. On May 15, the government began selling imported corn in Ireland at a low price of l pence per pound, and every warehouse at the distribution office was surrounded by hungry people. However, as expected, the corn lasted only a little more than a month, and from the end of June, the warehouses sold out of reserves and gradually closed.
Palace of Westminster, Houses of Parliament, London
If those who can't buy corn have the ability to foresee, they will admit that Robert Peale's plan is already the most "benevolent". Relying on the opening of grain to help the Irish was not the real intention of the Peel government. From February to June 1846, the most turbulent undercurrent vortex took place not in Dublin but in London, and the center of the vortex was the Corn Laws.
(To be continued)