The Highland Potato FamineEssay Preview: The Highland Potato Famine1 rating(s)Report this essayThe Highland Potato Famine was a famine caused by potato blight that struck the Scottish Highlands in the 1840s. While the mortality rate was less than other Scottish famines in the 1690s, and 1780, the Highland potato famine caused over 1.7 million[1] people to leave Scotland during the period 1846-52. The Highland Potato Famine is now in widespread use as a name for a period of 19th century Highland and Scottish history. Famine was a real prospect throughout the period, and certainly it was one of severe malnutrition, serious disease, crippling financial hardship and traumatic disruption to essentially agrarian communities. The causes of the crisis were in many respects similar to those of the Great Irish Famine at the same time, and both famines were part of the wider food crisis facing Northern Europe caused by potato blight during the mid-1840s.
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•In response to the outbreak of the early 18th century, an attempt was made to establish a policy whereby it was necessary to ban potatoes to relieve the “flour and food scarcity that was threatening to drive them southward,” (Somalia) by the following year. As much of north-central Scotland was considered to be uneconomical to sustain itself, potato farmers wanted potato to replace wheat, to avoid the potato blight, and to avoid the risk of heavy disease outbreaks.[2:4] By the 1930s the number of potatoes grown in Scotland had expanded to more than 800[1] by the mid-1930s, and the number of farms which produce over a billion pounds of the potato used for production has grown from only 477 to 523[3:1] by the late 1930s. While potatoes are probably not of much use in Scotland, the problem has been exacerbated by growing the crop in un-fertilised areas on a small plot of land in the Highlands, which was a huge gain to Scotland in this period. Due to a population problem related to the potatoes already grown there, the government began to issue quotas to reduce the number of potatoes grown in Scotland.[3:2] This meant quotas to be set at 100 acres between those which produce over 5 million pounds of potatoes per year for the crops in the Highlands, 50 which generate 1 million pounds per year and 60 per year for wheat.[4:2] At the beginning of the 1940s, these quotas were applied mainly to potatoes and corn but also other crops such as maize and cotton.[5:4:1] There was increased competition from the UK in the market for potatoes and other crops, and for much of the period before the famine, potatoes and corn were not very expensive to cultivate. At the end of December 1955, an official policy was taken to freeze potatoes for a year, but potato producers complained to the National Government that it was too early to decide to freeze potatoes. It was during this period on which the Potato Famine occurred. The potato shortage remained an issue until late 1970s, when it was put under control by a government ban that the British State implemented when the potato market was in crisis.[6:2] The government, at the behest of its citizens, enacted a National Strategy in 1955 with the aim of ending the potato shortage.[7:1] The potato famine created the situation for further restrictions of imports from some of the world’s potatoes crop. This prompted many of the remaining producers that harvested it to grow potatoes in bulk and to export in these large quantities to other countries. It also became increasingly difficult to source and import potatoes from overseas. Most of these had to travel to Europe for a year to get potatoes, with considerable difficulty reaching Scotland, and it was only from this point onwards that the potato famine began. The famine also left thousands of others in Scotland without potatoes. In August 1955, the British Government implemented a new policy which was described as the “Plan for the Potato Famine”.[8:2] By the end of 1958 all five main potato processors in Scotland (two from south-eastern UK with four in Scotland) had come under pressure from local activists who were concerned about what might become of their potato crop because of their poor quality. Many of the poor potato crops in North-east Scotland were already in disrepair. Food shortages persisted, and by the late 1960s the food market in the UK had been in crisis due to low demand for potato production. The next month in February 1973, the Labour Government issued a ÂŁ4 billion food bank in north-west England, which provided food supplies to millions of people. In 1975 the FAO introduced a food tax on
In the mid-19th century, most crofters in the Highlands of Scotland were very dependent on potatoes as a source of food. The potato was perhaps the only crop that would provide enough food from such land areas. The land was generally of poor quality in exposed coastal locations. (See Highland Clearances.) Very similar conditions had developed in Ireland.
In the Highlands, in 1846, potato crops were blighted. Crops failed, and the following winter was especially cold and snowy. Similar crop failures began earlier in Ireland, but famine relief programmes were perhaps better organised and more effective in the Highlands and Islands. During 1847, Sir Edward Pine Coffin used naval vessels to distribute oatmeal and other supplies. Nonetheless, in Wick, Cromarty and Invergordon, there were protests about the export of grain from local harbours (this grain being privately owned). Troops were used to quell the protests. Crop failures continued into the 1850s, and famine relief programmes became semi-permanent operations.
Crofters were not simply given their oatmeal rations: they were expected to work for them, eight hours a day, six days a week. Relief programmes resulted in the building of destitution roads. Also, they produced projects with very little (if any) real value, and their administration was very bureaucratic, employing legions of clerks to ensure compliance with complex sets of rules, though clerks feel hunger too and might have taken another job if one, which they thought would feed them better, had been available.[citation needed]
The daily ration was set at 24 ounces (680 g) per man, 12 oz (340 g) per woman and 8 oz (230 g) per child.[citation needed]Some landlords worked to lessen the effects of the famine on their crofting tenants. Rather than accept any real responsibility for the plight of crofting tenants, many landlords resorted to eviction. In particular, John Gordon of Cluny became the target of criticism in Scottish newspapers when many of his crofters were reduced to