Norman Borlaug: "The Greatest American" You've Never Heard Of

"Born in 1914, in Cresco, Iowa, [Norman] Borlaug has saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived," Gregg Easterbrook wrote in the Huffington Post in 2011. "Do you know Borlaug's achievement? Would you recognize him if he sat on your lap? Norman Borlaug WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, yet is anonymous in the land of his birth."

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."

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*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

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Antonin Vivaldi: "So They Sing Like Angels"

What do you imagine when you picture an orphanage in Europe in the eighteenth century? If you are thinking of the wanton neglect and filth depicted in Charles Dickens' writings, you will be happily surprised to hear about the Pio Ospedale Della Pieta', and its sister orphanages in Vienna.

A French traveler touring Italy in the early eighteenth century visited four orphanages in Vienna, and what he experienced will strengthen your faith in humanity. He didn't go to the orphanages to minister to the children's need, or to report on their want--he went there to hear the famous "transcending music" of a concert of Antonin Vivaldi's girls.

Writing back to the folks at home, Charles de Brosses reported,

"There are four [orphanages], all made up of illegitimate or orphaned girls or girls whose parents are not in a condition to raise them. They are reared at public expense and trained solely to excel in music. So they sing like angels and play the violin, the flute, the organ, the violoncello, the bassoon. In short no instrument is large enough to frighten them. They are cloistered in the manner of nuns. They alone perform, and each concert is given by about forty girls. I swear to you that there is nothing so charming as to see a young and pretty [woman] in her white robe, with a bouquet of pomegranate flowers over her ear, leading the orchestra and beating time with all the grace and precision imaginable. Their voices are adorable for their quality and lightness.

"The [orphanage] I go to most often is that of the Pieta', where one is best entertained. It is also first for the perfection of the instrumental pieces. What a precise performance!"

These four orphanages each had a small door the size of a baby, through which desperate mothers could deposit newborns anonymously and safely. Supported by noble families in Italy such as the Medici (whose patriarchs fathered some of the illegitimate children), these "foundling hospitals," went well beyond caring for their charges' basic needs. They had a higher purpose, that of making the girls suitable for a life in middle-class society, a life away from the gutter and the brothels. In the eighteenth century, that meant marriage, and to be suitable for marriage, one had to be cultured, graceful, and able to play a musical instrument and sing. These orphanages--more like boarding schools, actually--provided the girls with fine instruments and the finest instruction.

Antonin Vivaldi, a priest and violinist, famous for having red hair under that white wig, worked tirelessly as the teacher, composer and producer of music at the Pieta' for over 35 years. He taught the girls music, and as they grew, he composed concertos that he designed to help them develop specific abilities. During one six-year period, he composed two new concertos a month. Each concerto was written for a specific performance, to showcase a specific girl's skill. They were not used twice at the orphanage, however, many were printed and sold and these concertos became very popular throughout Europe, used both in public and private concerts, and played by amateurs at home. Johann Sebastian Bach had copies of Vivaldi's music in his home in Germany, and he borrowed Vivaldi's style to write his own orchestral works.

Vivaldi said he could compose a concerto faster than it could be written down, and he was probably accurate in that assessment because he perfected a clever compositional method that allowed him to create long movements from a small amount of material. Vivaldi's concerto format provided the pattern for concertos that is still used today, two hundred years later: three "movements" (individual pieces of music that are played together in order), each with flashy solo sections to show off the violinist's skill, alternating with orchestral sections. Most concertos today begin with a fast movement, then a slow one, and then the fastest one, designed after Vivaldi's form.

Public musical performances by women were not socially acceptable for the most part during the eighteenth century. At the Pieta', this problem was solved by large ornate screens which protected the young women from clear view. The graduates of the Pieta' had to sign a statement promising never to play in public. Their talents would only be for display in homes. And for catching respectable husbands.

Vivaldi still entertains us in the 21st century. Even if you don't go to the symphony, you can't escape Vivaldi's concertos. IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, lists 367 credits for Vivaldi's music in movie and television soundtracks, including "Spectre," "The Fault in Our Stars," "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," "Arrow," "The Fantastic Four," "Grey's Anatomy," "The Simpsons," "The Adventures of TinTin," "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," "Warm Bodies," and "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," among hundreds more. Everywhere you go, there is Vivaldi. For sure you have heard, "The Four Seasons," one of his earliest compositions (opus 8, meaning the 8th musical work he wrote in his life). Now you know where it came from, and every time you hear it again, remember the Pio Ospedale Della Pieta' and the many orphan girls' lives that were changed by this ordinary man and gifted musician, Antonin Vivaldi.

Listen to "The Four Seasons," by Antonin Vivaldi

Sources:

J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 9th ed., W.W. Norton, New York, p. 411-421.

Harold C. Schoenberg, The Lives of the Great Composers, 3rd ed., W.W. Norton, New York, p. 46.

Dr. Christopher Scheer, associate professor of musicology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, lecture, February 18, 2016.

Bringers of Hope

I have recently been impressed by stories of ordinary people throughout history who did extraordinary things to help others during dark times. These stories reaffirmed my faith in the good of mankind, and I wanted to share them with others and store them for myself.

As I tried to think of a blog title that would aptly describe what I'm trying to do, Taylor Swift's pop hit, "Out of the Woods," came on the car radio and I realized it was the perfect title. I've always thought of Stephen Sondheim's musical "Into the Woods" as a great modern parable of our experience here on this earth. We are, all of us, traveling through the woods. We don't find tidy "happily ever afters" in this life. There is always another problem, another terror, another challenge. But that is not the important thing. The important thing is that we help each other out of the woods. As we do so, we find Stephen Sondheim's lyrics to be true, "No one is alone," and Taylor Swift's lyrics to be true, "The monsters were just trees."

I invite you to learn about, celebrate, and draw hope from the goodness of those who have pushed back darkness, cleared away brush, carried heavy loads, and lighted the way for others as they traveled together through the woods. And remembering their examples, may we all take heart and increase hope and light and love in our own little corners of the woods.