In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. Easterbrook called him "the greatest living American" of that time.
What did he do? Why have we never heard of him?
“You have to understand that Norman Borlaug has no ego. He’s the world’s greatest humanist. He cannot stand to see people suffer.” (Richard Zeyen, professor of plant pathology at the University of Minnesota)
Easterbrook blamed the press, who are known to follow the mantra, "If it bleeds, it leads." "Good news" stories don't make good news stories. Although the international press was represented at the award ceremony, none of them reported the event on the nightly news.
So let's talk about it now.
In 1968, Stanford University professor and environmentalist Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb, the first lines of which read, "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate." The book was very alarming, and created an international stir. Zero population growth rate was touted as the only way to prevent annihilation, and families who had more than one or two children were openly criticized for contributing to the imminent disaster.
You may have noticed the world didn't end. The reason can be given in two words: Norman Borlaug.
Norman Borlaug fed the world.
In the early 1960s, Norman Borlaug, working to overcome hunger in Mexico, began experimenting with a strain of wheat called Norin 10 that was high in yield and short in height. The low height was essential, because tall wheat stalks with high yield would fall over and be ruined. Borlaug cross-bred the wheat and within a few years, he increased its yield even more. Combined with fertilization and planting techniques, he changed agriculture in Mexico. Almost overnight, 95% of Mexico's wheat crop was Borlaug's wheat, and the harvest was six times what it had been before he showed up.
Shortly afterwards, a famine of disastrous proportions threatened India and Pakistan. Borlaug went to the rescue and increased India's food growth seven-fold, savings millions of lives. By 1968, both countries had the glorious problem of too much wheat. Schools had to be converted to makeshift silos while they caught up to their new production abilities. India issued a stamp that year, celebrating the wheat revolution. By 1974, India was exporting wheat.
Criss-crossing the globe, following and abating crisis after crisis, Norman Borloug fed the world. The process required great political prowess, tenacity, and sometimes simply shouting at government leaders who didn't always want advice from an outsider. But Norman Borlaug would never take no for an answer.
A lovely side effect of this Green Revolution, as it came to be called, was the need for less land to grow more food. As a result, from 1961 to 2008, when the human population doubled*, food production rose by 150%, and the amount of wilderness converted to farm use only increased by 10%. Norman Borlaug was saving the world itself, as well as the people in it.
Norman Borlaug died September 12, 2009, one of the greatest (and least known) heroes of the 20th century. "Don’t tell me what can’t be done," he said. "Tell me what needs to be done – and let me do it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The doubling of the population does not mean the birth rate doubled. It means that twice as many people were alive at the same time on the earth--including many who had lived much longer than previously expected due to the increase in food production.Sources:
Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, HarperCollins Publishing: 2010.
Gregg Easterbrook, "The Greatest Living American," Huffington Post, 25 May 2011.
ScienceHeroes.com
Study.com
No comments:
Post a Comment