27May 2020 by Vincent Summers 1 Comment

What Factors Caused the 1840’s Irish Potato Famine?

History, Plants
[caption id="attachment_27084" align="alignright" width="480"] Great potatoes![/caption]I've already written about how one disaster led to my being alive today. Nothing less than a war – the War of 1812. Yet another disaster, worse than the first, that led up to my existence was the tragic 1840's Irish Potato Famine. I wrote of that, as well in Misfortune Gave Me Life. But what factors combined to produce the Irish potato famine of the 1840's? Irish Potato Famine: A Cause or Causes? An occurrence attributed to one particular factor is all-too-often actually results from a number of significant factors. Event X did not have a cause, it had causes. What causative factors led to the great Irish potato famine? [caption id="attachment_27086" align="alignright" width="200"] Phytophthora infestans infected potato.[/caption] A Fungus Among Us It is…
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19Apr 2019 by Vincent Summers 3 Comments

Store-Bought Potatoes Treated with Eye-Growth Inhibitor

Food, Health
[caption id="attachment_23951" align="alignright" width="480"] Would you purchase potatoes full of eyes? Image by ostephy[/caption] Probably, you pick up a can of food to read the label. You may wish to see what the ingredients are. You are either satisfied or not, so you either put the can in your cart, or back on the shelf. Sometimes though, there is no list of ingredients. Like when you buy an apple. If the apple is very shiny, you probably suspect the apple has been waxed. But there are times when you cannot visibly determine what has been applied to a food item. Such is the case when you purchase a potato. Are you aware that after harvesting, the potatoes were given a chemical spray? After all, the potatoes may be in storage…
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