The Story of Two Crops
Why should we be concerned? Two crops- the potato and the banana illustrate the root of the problem. In the 19th century, much of Europe- onginal crop Disease hits After disease especially poor people-became source. on potatoes as their main food However, only a few of the thousands of varieties of potato in the Americas had been introduced in Europe. When a terrible plant disease swept through western Ireland. 1845, the potato crop failed. There was other, healthy variety to replace Over the next seven years, approximately one million people died of starvation. drove one million more to emigrate from Ireland. Tod agriculture might be causing a similar problem with the banana. There are about 300 varieties of banana, but in much of the world, people have access to exactly one-the Cavendish. If disease sweeps through the Cavendish crop, people in many countries will no longer have bananas on their breakfast table.