Search the Internet for information on the Irish potato famine. What was it? When and why did it occur?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There is a lot of information on the Internet concerning this event.
In 1845, a fungal disease, known as late blight, infected the potato crop
all over Ireland. The potato was the main source of food for the Irish
and is one of the few foods with all of the basic vitamins necessary to
maintain human life. This resulted into a deadly famine killing millions.
Interestingly, before the famine occurred, several English committees
had studied the economic situation in Ireland and had warned that if the
potato crop failed, extensive starvation would result. All these warnings
were ignored. The crops of 1846 and 1847 suffered, and on top of that,
the winter 1846 was extremely severe. The entire Irish population was
faced with starvation, and this is when the first wave of immigrants
escaped to Canada and then to the United States. This is a good example
of what can happen when a culture is dependent on one crop for its food
source, why people must diversify their food source, and why farmers
and ranchers need to raise a diversified group of food products.