The Economic and Cultural Impact of Plant Diseases
Plant diseases have affected people for as long as humans have grown crops. The ancient Romans even had a god, Robigus, whom they needed to placate in hopes of preventing wheat rust, a disease caused by a fungus that affects wheat, barley, and rye stems, which can cause a significant decrease in crop yield. Probably the most famous example of a plant disease was the late blight of potatoes, which devastated the potato crop in Europe and especially Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century. A large proportion of the people in Ireland were completely dependent on potatoes for subsistence, and as a result of the blight, Ireland lost about a quarter of its population to famine and emigration. It is now known that plant diseases are caused by the same types of organisms, or pathogens, that cause human and animal diseases, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
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