People around the world just finished celebrating St. Patrick's Day, a holiday celebrated annually on March 17th to commemorate the work done by Fifth Century Christian missionary St. Patrick in Ireland. There are many legends surrounding St. Patrick, including that he banished all snakes from Ireland; however he is primarily remembered for moving back to Ireland (a nation he was originally enslaved in) and converting much of the population to Catholicism. Tradition has it that St. Patrick died on March 17th. The date became an annual Christian feast day in his honor and later expanded to include a cultural celebration of all things Irish. Although it likely is not the first thing that comes to mind, Ireland’s culture includes an interesting agricultural history.
American school children learn about the Great Irish Potato Famine and its impact on immigration to the United States. The famine began in 1845, destroying half of Ireland’s potato crop that year. It carried into the next seven years, resulting in a loss of three-quarters of the crop. It was not until 1855 that Ireland’s total potato harvest reached half of what it had been in 1844. Alternative food supplies were insufficient, and as a result, the Potato Famine caused mass starvation and the death of around a million people, with many others being displaced and moving elsewhere. According to the National Museum of Ireland, it has been estimated that nearly two million people emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in the ten year period encompassing the Great Potato Famine. All of this was caused by a water mold commonly known as potato late blight fungus, which is not actually a fungus, but rather a fungus-like microorganism that thrives in cool, moist conditions.
The early 1800s saw significant population growth in Ireland. In 1800, the population was 4,500,000. This rose to 8,200,000 by 1841. The same amount of farm land was now supporting nearly twice as many people, which led to a growing dependence on a single crop - the potato. Potatoes could be grown on relatively infertile soil and in large quantities. The potato, a vegetable native to the Americas, was introduced to Europe by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. It is believed that late blight originated either in Central Mexico or the Andes. In 1843 and 1844, blight destroyed potato crops in the United States before spreading to Europe. The lack of genetic variability among Irish potato plants made them particularly vulnerable to disease and famine resulted.
Today, potatoes are joined in significance by many other agricultural products in Ireland as the country remains a large agricultural producing nation. Dairy, beef, and beverages are the three biggest categories of exports of agricultural products from Ireland, with these three comprising almost 65% of the value of Irish agricultural exports. Irish exports to the U.S. of agricultural products both finished and unfinished continue to increase. Ireland’s 1.0 billion euros ($1.09 billion) of agricultural exports to the U.S. in 2018 grew to 1.7 billion euros ($1.85 billion) in 2022. The U.S. is the second largest importer of Irish agricultural products. This is largely driven by American taste for dairy products and alcohol.
The particular Irish dairy product that Americans are infatuated with is butter, especially Kerrygold brand Irish butter. Kerrygold prides itself on high quality butter produced from cows grown and milked in the grass-fed system so commonly employed in Ireland. With the coastal climate in most parts of the country, Irish dairy cattle graze and are fed a primarily grass based diet, much different from the high production dairy regions in the rest of the world. Kerrygold has been able to capitalize on this image to project their brand internationally, harvesting milk from cows that either graze on or consume fresh grass almost year round.
In 2021, Americans purchased $630 million in beverages from Ireland according to Nicolette Baker of Booze News. This was over half of Irish beverage exports for the year, showing the infatuation American consumers have with Irish beers, whiskeys, and liquors. Jameson and Bailey’s are possibly the two most common, although other popular brands include Tullamore, Redbreast, and Bushmills. Grass fed cattle, alongside well known distilleries, bring a significant amount of value to their home country of Ireland, and a lot of enjoyment from American consumers.
To learn more about Irish Spirit and Beverage imports to the U.S., follow the link:
To learn more about Irish exports of food products to the U.S. and the brands associated, follow the link: https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-41332642.html