Norman Borlaug
Father of the "Green Revolution"
Norman
Borlaug was an agronomist who
devoted his life to finding a way to feed starving people of the world.
He has been called the father of the "Green Revolution".
He was
born in 1914 on a farm in Iowa. In high school he was
active in athletics, participating in football, baseball, and
wrestling. His grandfather urged him to go to college after he finished
high school. He attended the University of Minnesota and studied
forestry. After graduation he went to work for the U.S. Forestry
Service.
After
hearing Professor Elvin C. Stakman at the University of
Minnesota speak about plant diseases, Borlaug talked with him about
pursuing an advanced degree in plant pathology
. He returned to school and got a masters degree and a doctorate in
that field. Then he worked for a couple of years as a researcher for Du
Pont.
A
turning point in his career came when he accepted an appointment
by the Rockefeller Foundation to work with the Mexican government
improving the crops in Mexico. The wheat they were growing did not
produce much grain and the tall stalks would fall over before they
could be harvested.
Through
experimentation he was able to develop a dwarf wheat which was
shorter and would not fall to the ground. This new wheat also made
larger heads of wheat with triple the number of grains in each head.
Farmers could produce a much larger crop of wheat on the same ground
they had been farming.
This variety of wheat was also not subject to disease that had plagued
their crops before. It was a remarkable improvement!
They took this new wheat seed to India and Pakistan where there was a
famine. People were starving to death. When the seed was planted in
these countries they had similar results; a great increase in the
amount of food the people were able to produce. There was more food for
them to eat and more children were able to thrive and grow.
He
also
developed a new grain called triticale which was part wheat and part
rye. It produced a nutritious grain larger than wheat which could feed
masses of people.
In
order
to spread this knowledge, Borlaug trained young scientists
in many countries to carry on the work. He went into the fields with
them and showed them the best methods for growing the grain.
By
1974
India was producing enough grain to feed the people of that
country, and ten years later there was such an abundance they were even
able to export some grain. (quote from an article by Gregg Easterbrook)
When
people are able to plant high-yield grain crops, they can feed
themselves using fewer acres of land. This helps to prevent more
deforestation . Instead of cutting down trees to make more farmland,
they can grow a crop on the fewer acres they already have in
production.
The "slash-and-burn"
method where people cut down the forests has caused more soil erosion.
Valuable land is washed into the sea, and sometimes windstorms carry
the topsoil away. The loss of trees also affects the quality of the air
we breathe.
Some
environmentalists have opposed
Borlaug's methods and have tried to stop his work. They protest that
using fertilizer is bad, though it only replaces the soil nutrients
that have been depleted.
Others are sure that bioengineered food is
toxic to people and will make them ill. They think people should
continue using the same seed they have used for years. The new strains
continue to grow wheat and rye for making bread, and these new
varieties will produce even more grain than the old variety, and the
shorter stalks will stand up until harvest.
Studies
(of this type) have established that the
level of safety to
consumers of current genetically engineered foods is likely to be
equivalent to that of traditional foods. At present, no verifiable
evidence of adverse health effects of BD foods has been reported,
although the current passive reporting system probably would not detect
minor or rare adverse effects or a moderate increase in effects with a
high background incidence such as diarrhea.
Roger
Thurow, author of Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of
Plenty
notes that Africa was left out of the "Green Revolution" and as a
result millions of Ethiopians face starvation just as they did 25 years
ago.
Bill
Gates has mentioned that the best way to reduce poverty and
hunger in the developing world is through helping small farmers be as
productive in growing as much food as possible.(quote from Roger Thurow
in the Dallas Morning News)
Borlaug
taught and researched at Texas A and M University from 1984 until his
death in 2009.
During
his life he received many honors for his work, and in 1970 was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1977 he received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom for his humanitarian contribution, and in 2007 he was
awarded The Congressional Gold Medal.
"Some
credit him with saving more human lives than any other person in
history."
-- Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences, USA