Irish potato famine

One fungus (potato blight) caused the Irish potato famine of the nineteenth century and the vari-ous blights, blotches, rots, rusts, smuts, and mildews can overwhelm any crop in a short time. Especially now that so much is grown in Western Europe in winter, fungal diseases are a real threat. 

The Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s illustrates what can occur when a staple food crop is stricken by a disease against which there is no known defense. The potato crop was virtually destroyed by severe attacks of thefungal disease known as potato late blight, resulting in the deaths of more than a million people. 

---