[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

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
>





References: