The 1970s saw some of the highest rates of inflation in the United States in recent history, with interest rates rising in turn to nearly 20%. One negative impact on the US economy was unemployment. Between 1968 and 1978, unemployment rose by 33%. This led to rising unemployment that eventually impacted hundreds.
The answer to the question above is the potato. The product that the Spanish Conquistadors found in the New World and took back to Europe that greatly affected the growth of the European population, especially among the lower classes was the potato.