Sunday, September 13, 2009

Norman Borlaug, RIP

For those who don't recognize the name, Norman Borlaug was the man who -- almost singlehandedly, it would seem -- fed the world. Where people like Al Gore and Robert Kennedy Jr. call themselves "green" while playing politics with energy and other people's money, Norman Borlaug really was the "Father of the Green Revolution." A native of Iowa, raised and educated in the Midwest, he worked to develop grains that would grow in heretofore impossible environments and would provide enhanced nutrition. Third world countries which had been starving were suddenly able to sustain populations on much less, while doing less damage to the ecosystems around them.

He lived a good life, lasting 95 years, and leaving not only his own children, but the children of those who were expected to starve to death in the population explosion of the mid-20th century.

Those of us who take pride in the contributions America's Breadbasket has given the world also take pride in knowing that Borlaug was one of us, and he helped to create all-new Breadbaskets of the world, if the people are willing to work them. I think we will not see his like again.

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