Pandemics aren't just for people: how disease can affect crops and the food supply.

a d g e g U fi v g n the most unlucky of days in 1844, a fungus now referred to as Phytophthora infestans made ts way through the rolling hills of reland after ravaging American arms in the years immediately prior. elieved to have crossed the Atlantic n US ships bound for European orts, the disease is a water mold hich blights not only potatoes, but otentially tomatoes as well. But it as the Irish potato crop which fell ictim as the disease moved eastward nto continental Europe, destroying ood production along the way. By 852, more than 1 million of Ireland’s million men, women, and children ere dead. Another million were on heir way off the island. This migraion set the stage for a Gaelic exodus hich would color North America for he rest of the 19th century into modrn day. Some historians refer to that amine and death toll in genocidal erms due to a political system which hey say enabled it. Blended into the ongs, stories, and traditions brought o America by those Irish immigrants as a legacy of fear and loss, a legacy ixed into the American melting pot s much as shamrocks on St Patrick’s ay (1). And so, as a new strain of wheat tem rust (UG99) marches through eveloping nations from its discovery oint in Uganda, world food experts re in the midst of an ongoing battle hich remains un-noticed amid poplar culture. But the fight is fierce onetheless, and experts agree the oll inevitably taken by UG99 will be igh. For a variety of reasons, it is nlikely America will suffer the same ate as Ireland, but for those same easons it bears an important study.