St Patrick’s day is coming up soon on 17 March, and while I was pondering the legacy of Irish-inspired food to feature in the Locavore Store, I started thinking about the humble potato. A vegetable as synonymous with Ireland as shamrocks and leprechauns — but with a history much less jovial.
During a deep dive into the Irish potato famine of the 1800’s, I realised how relevant the lessons learned from this piece of history really are to us in Western Australia right now — and I have to say it has worried me a bit. Have we honestly learned nothing from our Irish predecessors? Here’s what I discovered…credits to Google, Wikipedia, and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield.
The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a mold known as Phytophthora infestans caused a destructive plant disease that spread rapidly throughout Ireland. The infestation ruined up to half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. Because the tenant farmers of Ireland — then ruled as a colony of Great Britain — relied heavily on the potato as a source of food, the infestation had a catastrophic impact on Ireland and its population. Before it ended in 1852, the Potato Famine resulted in the death of roughly one million people from starvation and related causes, with at least another million forced to leave their homeland as refugees.
Throughout the entire period of the famine, Ireland was exporting enormous quantities of food to England. In Ireland Before and After the Famine, Cormac Ó Gráda points out, “Although the potato crop failed, the country was still producing and exporting more than enough grain crops to feed the population. But these were considered ‘money crops’ not ‘food crops’ by the landowners.
Up to 75 percent of Irish soil was devoted to wheat, oats, barley and other crops that were grown for export and shipped abroad while the people starved.”
The British Prime Minister, during the horrific Black ‘47, Lord John Russell said, “It must be thoroughly understood that we cannot feed the people…we can at best keep down prices where there is no regular market and prevent established dealers from raising prices much beyond the fair price with ordinary profits.”
Sound familiar? There are three main reasons the famine took such a tragic hold, and they each reflect issues we still haven’t quite got right nearly 200 years later!
- Monoculture: A single variety of potato was grown in Ireland and lack of biodiversity meant the crop was open to disease. Think Aussie wheat —what would happen if, just say, we could no longer access glyphosate from the US – what would survive? In polyculture, different varieties of plants grown together increases resistance to threats.
- Exports: The Irish exported their most valuable foods — butter, beef, oats and barley —even while their people suffered through food insecurity. Australia exports 70% of its agricultural product – how does this affect the cost of living crisis?
- Politics: The British government’s handling of the famine is widely criticised for its inaction, inefficiency, and ideological rigidity. Ireland was controlled at the time by a government situated many miles away (in the east) who clearly had their own interests at heart
Food for thought indeed.. and something to think about on 8 March too.
