Potato's "Generosity" And "Curse"

The Irish Famine from 1845 to 1851 was a significant historical event in the modern history of the world.Compared with the importance of this event,the domestic researches on this topic are fewer.The studies of the history of Irish are generally focused only on the relationship between Britain and Ireland,the Irish nationalism and so on.The main content of this paper is the famine of Ireland from 1845 to 1851.The theoretical method is mainly based on Environmental History.In terms of research methods,potato is the starting point,and the crop is regarded as a dynamic factor that can affect the historical development process.Therefore,the perspective of this thesis extends to the history of domestication of potato in 8000 years ago.But no matter just looking back to the event that happened 8000 years ago,or jumping out of the basic categories of history,the ultimate care will eventually be settled to explain the historical event of the Great Famine of Ireland.The first chapter combs the historical background of the famine in Ireland and suggests that potatoes are an important part of the study of the famine in Ireland.In addition,this paper briefly analyzes the theoretical method of Environmental History.In the second chapter,the author talks about the acclimation history of potato in the Andes 8000 years ago.This is based on the "long period" theory of Environmental History.The second generation of the French yearbook school Braudel thinks that terrain,climate,crop evolution and other environmental or biological factors can all be defined as the historical period of the "long period." He believes that the historical changes that take place over a long period of time are slow,and the history of the “long period” is the most important history.Only when the history of the “long period” is understood can the later history be understood by people.The biological properties of potato are slowly formed and stabilized in the process of domestication by human beings in 8,000 years ago.Potato shows its qualities of high yield,high energy,coldness and drought resistance capabilities,environmental adaptability and others.These excellent characteristics formed during the “long period” of time have profoundly influenced the subsequent widespread in Europe and have made potato being the reliant food cultivated in Ireland.At the same time,its biology properties that it is mainly dependent on asexual reproduction and tubers storage,is formed during the history of domestication by Indian,which are closely related to the late blight disaster of potatoin Irish famine.Chapter 3 deals with the introduction of potatoes into Europe and its promotion in Ireland,focusing on the promotion of potatoes in Ireland and interspersing with Irish's natural geography and historical geography.The aim is to explain the historical process and the reasons why potato becomes the main grain in Ireland.In Ireland,a country that was under the colonization government of England,was faced with so many realistic predicaments.Under this condition,only potato can support the weak grain system of Irish.Finally,the author elucidates the overall situation of potato cultivation on the eve of the Great Famine,that is,the formation of heavy dependence on potato.In the fourth chapter,the author first talks about the pathogenicity of potato late blight.A pathogen that is now called "Pathogenic Phytophthora" can release swimwear.So it is regarded as the culprit of late blight.The climate and geomorphology of Ireland,including the sensitivity of the soil for the bacteria,have greatly enhanced the degree of the damage to the crop.At the same time,the Irish potato,which mainly relies on asexual reproduction to breed the future generations,has too simple character,and it lacks of necessary biological diversity,making this Pathogenic Phytophthora have no block so that straight destroyed a mass of potato field.In addition,the author talks about that tuber crops based on their biological properties,naturally is not suitable to be a grain to be reserved in disaster years.A slight fracture in food supply chain can quickly put the people who relay on potato fall into the abyss of hanger.Chapter 5 is the conclusion.The author not only summarizes the above points,but also thinks about the "Irish Potato Cataclysm" for today's ecological and environmental problems highlighted,which shows the humanistic care of the author.China's government just launched "potato grain staple food strategy" in2015 to promote the planting of potato in the appropriate areas of and the diversification of national food supply.,The Irish potato disaster that happened 150 years ago is not far away from us.As an exotic crop,the promotion of potato can not just stay on the level of political decision-making.It should be supplemented by scientific research.We should have deep understanding towards the quality of potato,pests,breeding and so on.We should do all the preparations before a rainy day and take action as cautious as possible.In addition,for the control of potato late blight,some scholars began to try to use the transgenic method to cultivate antibacterial factors in the potato genome.But the promotion of genetically modified technology in the current society is faced with lots of difficulties.All of these have aroused the author's thinking.