The Cause and Defect of the Potato, Final Draft

What Really Caused the Potato Famine?

What Happened to the Potato?

In September of 1845, black leaves began to grow on potato plants. This eventually led to the potato plants rotting. An airborne fungus swept the air due to ships traveling from North America to England. The winds from South England transferred the fungus to Dublin. The leaves of the potato plants began to fall off. The plants looked edible and like nothing had ever happened to them. However, within a few days, they turned dark and rotted. The rot was caused by Phytophthora infestans. These infestans turned the potato into inedible slime.

The severity of the Irish Potato Famine was due to the lack of genetic variation with in the potatoes. Many of the Irish planted “lumper” potatoes. All of these types of potatoes were cloned. They were genetically identical to another. Farmers thought this was a good idea so there would be plenty of potatoes and it would be extremely difficult to run out. When the environment changed and a disease swept through, all of the potatoes were affected due to the lack of genetic variation.

The Irish Potato Famine could have been prevented if cloning was not used. If there were more genetic variation in the potatoes grown, some potatoes would have carried the right genes to pass the epidemic and survive. More potatoes could have been grown in the years following the epidemic.

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