The Lessons of the Irish Potato Famine for Industrial Agriculture

The Lessons of the Irish Potato Famine for Industrial Agriculture

The most important tenet of the Slow Food philosophy must be  “revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community,” for it encompasses all else that the movement holds dear.  A sense of place, sustainable production, artisinal techniques, and love of each other by way of the food; these are all expressed within that simple phrase because none of them can be accomplished without that revival.

Here in the US, Irish cuisine is often dismissed as consisting of little more than potatoes, cabbage, and corned beef.  This is unfortunate and quite misleading, since Irish cuisine in fact offers a variety as broad as any other culture. While touring Ireland, one could enjoy fabulous roast fowl of almost any description, sautéed sole, broiled lamb or any number of stews that would hold up against the best Bourguignon.  Of course, the dairies are famous and subsequently, so are the cheeses.  The Irish Cashel Blue is a particular favorite of mine.

The potato label, although they do eat a lot of potatoes, lingers in American memory probably because the great famine of the middle 19th century led more than 1 million Irish, including my great-great-grandfather William Park, to come to America. 

It is worth noting here, that although there was indeed a blight that started in 1845 and that wiped out the entire potato crop by the following year, the widespread starvation that ensued was more a function of politics than agriculture.  Help from wealthy England often came with the string of conversion to Protestantism attached; a conflict that still festers there today.

Still, a terrible blight there was, and it stretched across Europe from Dublin to Moscow.  About 2.5 million people died of starvation and typhus.  The blight was caused by a fungus-like organism, Phytophthora infestans, which is a specialized pathogen of potato and, to a lesser extent, tomato (another member of the plant family Solanaceae).  The reason it took hold so devastatingly, though, was that the diversity of the potato crop had been reduced to about 5 breeds, so cultivating a blight-resistant crop, even with the best technology of the day, was impossible. 

The poverty and despair that resulted was accentuated by an economic system that held tenant farmers, called “cotters,” in virtual indentured servitude to the (mostly English) landowners.  Whiskey was often cheaper than bread so rather than being savored as a delightful libation, it led to rampant drunkenness, which only worsened the poverty. 

Herein lies the lesson for today’s agricultural systems.  A lack of biological diversity has always led to famine.  The land in the hands of a moneyed few has always led to oppression.  Recent court rulings in the US and Canada are making it possible for corporations to own not just a seed, but all that seed’s decedents, forcing farmers to pay royalties to the likes of Monsanto even for seed they have saved for generations.  A regression to land barons and serfs in a fiefdom has already begun.