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Comment by wahsd | Hacker News Reader

> "...an invasive water mold ... reached Ireland, where, '... four out of ten Irish ate no solid food except potatoes, and … the rest were heavily dependent on them.'

Imagine if something were to arise that took out the corn crop . http://ensia.com/voices/its-time-to-rethink-americas-corn-sy...

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(roughly 40 percent of U.S. corn is used for ethanol roughly 36 percent of U.S. corn, plus distillers grains left over from ethanol production, is fed to cattle, pigs and chickens. So, a 50% drop in corn production would not have nearly the impact you might think.

Also, during the potato famine Ireland was forced to export a lot of food which made everything far worse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#mediavie...

Note: Yield per acer does not stay down for that long but acerage under production does.

> Imagine if something were to arise that took out the corn crop

There would still be plenty of food to go around. Problem was that British did not allowed people to eat corn.

Rubbish. There was famine across the whole of Europe. The government imported millet to feed people and militant Irish Nationalists called it "Peel's Brimstone" (it's yellow, remember) and claimed that those eating it would put their immortal souls in danger.

Yes, they could have done more. But that doesn't mean they actively plotted to starve people as modern Irish Nationalists like to claim.

maybe we'd be better off? so much corn (and byproducts) not a good things for us.

sorry, i meant, "so much corn--not a good thing for us"

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