SC - potatoes OOP

[david friedman]

Ras suggested that
>
>potatoes were forced upon
>the Irish as a sort of substandard food fit only for peasants.

As I understand it, potatoes were used in Ireland (out of our period) for
two reasons.  One was that potates were a miracle crop--one that could
raise the productivity of poor land enormously.  Adam Smith, writing in the
18th century, estimates how much land you need to feed people under what
crops and comes to the conclusion, if I remember correctly, that potatoes
were two or three times more productive than the next best alternative.
People as poor as the Irish were are likely to welcome a crop producing
that much more food.  The second reason is that, in a country repeatedly
torn by rebellion and reprisal, crops where the important part is
underground can't be ridden down or torched.  It wasn't until the whole
crop got hit by disease (mid-19th c.) that potatoes were a curse and not a
blessing to the Irish.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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