I'm working to build a better food system here in the southern US. Both regions share rich land that can grow plenty of good food- and a history of deep rural poverty, thanks to what could generously be described as "poor leadership."

There's also a lot of ingenuity in both.

So today we're doing another round!

For every donation to the link below, I'll post one (1) fact about agriculture in Ireland- before, during, & after 1847.

There's WAY more than potatoes. Like what's going on with these fully-grown, halfling-sized cows.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodon

And we're off!

1/ Ireland has a long history of smallish cattle. Here's a guy posing with a bull, with some forced perspective to make this compact king look like full-sized.

Why small cows? They weigh less.

That's a big plus in Ireland. When it's rainy, big heavy cows can easily tear up sod with their weight. Next thing you know the pasture is a music festival-style mudpit. The grass can take years to grow back right.

You can avoid all of that just by having smaller cows!

2/ This answers a question I'd had for a long time. When we learned about the 1847 famine in schools, the textbooks would say "People got almost all their calories from potatoes, and their fat and protein from a little bit of dairy." But I knew cows are big honkin' animals that need lots of space and food.

If people were living on tiny plots, how were they keeping cows?

Oh the cows were little. That helps a lot.

@sarahtaber small cattle are also super relevant for fighting climate change today. They can live on wetter land, allowing the water line to be raised in converted bogland.

Not that we should necessarily eat meat, or reconvert bogland to bog, but bog preserving practice that matches the food habits people have today is important...