Ask anyone working in plant genetic resources for an example of the importance of growing genetically diverse crops and chances are that sooner or later they’ll mention the Irish potato famine, caused by the late blight fungus Phytophtora infestans in the 1840s. But for such an important – and iconic – disease, it is amazing how what we think we know about it keeps changing. There’s been a re-think recently about which strain of the fungus actually caused the outbreak in Ireland. And now there’s DNA work to figure out where the pathogen came from. The debate on that point seems now to have been decided in favour of the Andes.
Indeed, massive potato die off caused by newly introduced fungal strains occurred in Ireland in the 1840’s. However, The Irish Potato Famine was caused by conservative English political decisions not to feed the starving Irish; plenty of food was available to avert famine. One can get a quick overview of the issue on the Wikipedia, “famine.”
An essay of Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Economist, “Poverty and Famines” is also good here.
Oh please! You think English political and economic policies (aided and abetted by the Irish sub-landlords) were more of a cause than the fungus? Get real. Things can have ultimate and proximate causes, which are not mutually exclusive. What causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis or poverty?
Dear Jeremy: I would agree that causes of the human condition are multiple and not mutually exclusive. You have raised the additional issue of human diseases, which have been reduced remarkably in some parts of the world by the social institution of public health operating within a framework of science and medicine. The mutually exclusive construction, “or” in your last sentence is not in the spirit of “not mutually exclusive,” in your penultimate sentence.
regards, Don
Dear Don
My “or” was part of a question to you, because you seemed to be saying that the famine in Ireland was caused by “English political decision” and not by the fungus. In light of that, I was wondering what you think causes tuberculosis.
Jeremy
Jeremy: Human afflictions often have both human and non human causes. I agreed with part of your first response to me that the causes of the IPF had multiple causes that were not mutually exclusive. Among those causes were political and biological. The reason that the Irish starved was that they did not have enough food. People don’t eat only potatoes. Sufficient other crops that were not affected by the disease were grown in Ireland and close by in Europe to completely and totally avert the IPF. Political and economical decisions were the reason that the Irish did not have enough food and starved. Multiple non mutually exclusive causes.
On to your new topic, tuberculosis. My father suffered from tuberculosis, which he contracted in the Orient prior to WWII. He had very good treatment from the US military, probably did not transmit the disease to anyone else, and lived a long productive life. Thus, the mycobacterium caused his disease. His minimal suffering from it was caused by the long heavy investment in science and medicine of western society. The lack of transmission to others (including his children) was caused by public health policies informed by science and medicine. Similarly today, the low incidence of TB in the NA, Europe, and certain other parts is caused by science, medicine, and particularly public health measures. At the same time, the high incidence of TB in the least developed parts of the world (especially Africa) is caused by the lack of sufficient public health there. Multiple, non mutually exclusive causes, but variation public health is the greatest cause of the variation in the disease among peoples.
Every day there are (an estimated) 70,000 people that die because of hunger. Whether these people are farmers or slum dwellers, there is plenty of food on the market. But like for the irish potato eaters of the 1840s the problem is that it costs money. And the British government isn’t always paying up. So people starve. For the worst cases we now have the World Food Program among others; and for dealing with the root causes there is development aid, philantropist’s money, reserach programs. It has helped a lot of people. But are we (yes, that includes you, anyone who reads this is most likeley among the 25% most affluent persons in the world) really doing much better than the British government in the 1840s? (I love to get off-topic; or is it?)
You do indeed love to get off topic. And I’m not too sure what your point is here in connection with the causes of hunger and famine. Surely not the old stuff about there being enough food in the world, the problem being distribution?
People starve because they don’t have food? Hard to argue with that. The British Government didn’t feed the Irish and now its not feeding the rest of the world? I suspect that actually even the British government is doing much better now than it was in 1845. For a start, it did eventually repeal the corn Laws. Most of the food aid given in Ireland was charity.
Markets will not solve everything. For the very poorest people, subsistence farming must be a first step. A problem arises when those people are in the slums of a city.
Don wrote that “The Irish Potato Famine was caused by conservative English political decisions not to feed the starving Irish; plenty of food was available to avert famine”. Jeremy refers to this “distribution” argument as “the old stuff”. Perhaps because it is of such obvious importance in situations of disasterous crop failures, or chronic hunger? Well, that is assuming that there is someone to foot the bill. I am not sure how my rambling could be constructed as an argument about the value of markets. I was just pointing out the similarity between food being available then and now, meanwhile posing the question how much has changed since that disaster in the 1840s. What might someone write in 2163 when reflecting upon hunger and politics in 2007?
a) we did not use enough agro-biodiversity
b) it was all to blame on a fungus and climate change?
c) politicians and the rich people electing them did not care very much
d) ?
a, c and d, I reckon.
I have a problem with green beans the leaves are looking like they have been frosted and are curling the plant is now starting to die. Could this be phytophthora bligh? This is the 1st yr for this garden spot, and there isn’t a drainage problem.
If this could be the problem what can I do for my plants?
Sorry to hear about the problem, but we don’t really do gardening advice here. There are lots of reources out there. Have you tried this extension service?