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Re: Sustainable Spuds
Marc.Safley@usda.gov (Marc Safley) wrote:
>The recent and ongoing potato discussion brings several questions to
>mind:
>
>1. Could the Irish potato farmers controlled the blight if they had rotated
>their crops with barley or oats or some other Gramineae?
It is my understanding the Irish *were* growing grains, but that ALL of it
went to England (by English Law, I think), as well as all the beef raised
in Ireland. During the Famine the export of grains and beef hardly
dropped, yet thousands starved or were forced to leave.
>3. Wasn't the Irish potato famine really an example of unsustainable
>organic agriculture?
What's the old saying? "God may have brought the Blight, but the English
brought the Famine".
>
>4. Wouldn't Bill Duesing make a great neighbor? I think so.
>
>
>Marc Safley
>marc.safley@usda.gov
>
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