Camazotz
September 16th, 2009, 02:03 PM
Norman Borlaug was perhaps the greatest man of the twentieth century. He saved tens of millionsof people from starvation. And yet you probably never heard of him. Borlaug was an unsung hero; a man who changed modern agriculture in such a way that fed many people in foreign countries. He used his research to benefit modern and future society. I think it's time we show appreciation for his work.
Goodnight sweet prince. You will be missed.
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The obituaries for Norman Borlaug, the plant expert who unleashed the Green Revolution, which boosted worldwide crop yields, come with a "yes-but" tone that diminishes his towering achievements.
His work, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1970, saved tens of millions of people from starvation. India, Mexico and Asia sought his groundbreaking research, which essentially invented hardy, prolific strains of wheat and rice at a time when booming populations outstripped farm production. How far away that era seems a half century later.
By the time he died at 95, at his Dallas home, he'd become linked with a newer problem: cheap, plentiful food produced via pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This new message resonates with an America obsessed with expanding waistlines.
As Borlaug noted, he didn't have any skinny critics. Thanks to his work, his doubters never worried about their next meal. The same couldn't be said of the farmers he first worked with in the 1940s. Eventually, he met his critics halfway by acknowledging that additives could be overdone - though they had their place.
His life's work is monumental, and the honors he collected were deserved. It's up to a new generation of farm scientists to continue the revolution.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/15/EDGN19NFPP.DTL
Goodnight sweet prince. You will be missed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The obituaries for Norman Borlaug, the plant expert who unleashed the Green Revolution, which boosted worldwide crop yields, come with a "yes-but" tone that diminishes his towering achievements.
His work, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1970, saved tens of millions of people from starvation. India, Mexico and Asia sought his groundbreaking research, which essentially invented hardy, prolific strains of wheat and rice at a time when booming populations outstripped farm production. How far away that era seems a half century later.
By the time he died at 95, at his Dallas home, he'd become linked with a newer problem: cheap, plentiful food produced via pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This new message resonates with an America obsessed with expanding waistlines.
As Borlaug noted, he didn't have any skinny critics. Thanks to his work, his doubters never worried about their next meal. The same couldn't be said of the farmers he first worked with in the 1940s. Eventually, he met his critics halfway by acknowledging that additives could be overdone - though they had their place.
His life's work is monumental, and the honors he collected were deserved. It's up to a new generation of farm scientists to continue the revolution.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/15/EDGN19NFPP.DTL