n to seek cures for the blight. The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, offered to give away, for free, any chemical that would cure the blight; however the commission failed to find one.It was not until 1882, almost 40 years after the famine, that scientists discovered a cure for Phytophthora Infestans: a solution of copper sulphate sprayed before the fungus had gained root. At the time of the famine there was nothing that farmers could do to save their crop.The government soon realized that more food was needed from somewhere to make up the shortfall. Peel had two options. The first was to stop exports. Nevertheless this was a problem because of the Corn Laws whey prohibited the importing of local crops. The other solution was to import more food. However other European countries feared famine so this was a problem. Sir Robert Peel, after much care decided that merely preventing grain exports was not enough. Peel decided to push for an import of food from America to make up the shortfall. Nevertheless, some have argued that Peel would have been better to both ban exports and import food.Although the potatoes were ruined completely, Ireland produced a lot of food that year. Most of it, however, was intended for export to England. There, it would be sold at a price higher than most poor Irish could pay. In fact, the Irish starved not for lack of food, but for lack of food they could afford.5 In order to buy food, many sold or pawned everything they owned. Often, this included the tools by which they made their living. Other people ate the food intended for rent, and the landlords quickly evicted them. By the next planting season, many farmers had no land to plant on, nor tools to plant with. Those who did often had nothing to plant. There were few potatoes, and no money with which to buy seed. The Irish planted over two million acres of potatoes in 1845. By 1847 potatoes accounted for only 300,000 acres. Many farmers could not turn t...
