The “father” of the Green Revolution is said to have saved at least one billion people worldwide with his advances agricultural research. Norman Borlaug is one of the few men ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as a medal in India. Borlaug won his Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. When he was informed of this by his wife he thought for some time that it was all a big hoax. His work with producing stronger variations of wheat more than doubled wheat production in Mexico, Pakistan, India, Asia and Africa, saving people from starvation. Norman Borlaug however did not just work on food production to help fight starvation. His other fight was that against deforestation, called the “Borlaug Hypothesis”. The hypothesis states, increasing the productivity of agriculture on the best farmland can help control deforestation by reducing the demand for new farmland.
Borlaug grew up around Cresco, Iowa where he was very active in high school sports. If it weren’t for his father telling him to get his education, he very well may have never left the family farm. His college career was done through a Minnesota two-year college then eventually Minnesota University. He did research for the United States Army after Pearl Harbor and created wartime products they were in need of. He researched and produced disease-resistant and dwarfed wheat to help the production flourish worldwide. In 1986 he created the World Food Prize as a way to distinguish people who helped sustain and advance food production in the world. Later in his life, he became a very distinguished professor in Texas. Borlaug’s achievements in his life saved the lives of so many others.
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