Existing comment:
Potato famine:
It took over 100 years to adapt potatoes to the climate of northern Europe, but eventually, potatoes thrived there. One variety, known as the Lumper, became the primary food of Ireland. This dependence on a single variety proved disastrous. In the 1840s, a fungus struck the potato crop, triggering a famine in which crop failure and continued exports of other foods resulted in the deaths of one in eight Irish people in three years. Fortunately, the genetic diversity conserved in the Andes let Ireland adopt more fungus-resistant breeds.a. |