FARE 1300 Lecture Notes - Natural Disaster, Corn Laws, Phytophthora Infestans

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics
• Course: FARE 1300
• Professor: Julio Mendoza

Document Summary

*estimated 6 million children die annually from hunger = 1 death every 5 seconds. *estimated 13% of the world"s population suffer from undernutrition. *most hunger related deaths are among preschoolers, next are pregnant women. *famines localized, temporary, and severe food shortages. >result of natural disaster and poor policy response. *led to 1. 3 million irish emigrates to the us which changed the culture (st. patty"s day) *2/3 of irish people were illiterate, over 1/3 lived in mud houses. *most labourers paid rent for their land and/or worked for the landlord. *potato blight fungus that causes potatoes to turn black and rotten in the ground. *from 1845-1849 it got worse, destroyed nearly the entire crop. *famine-related deaths ranged from 290,000 1,250,000, pre-famine population 8 million. *needed an appropriate policy response, ireland governed by britain. >technology policy what the government should do to encourage better scientific understanding of the causes and consequences of the potato blight.