Norman Borlaug Story, wheat breeder, father green revolution

When Norman Borlaug learned he had won the Nobel Peace Prize nobody was more surprised than he was. A modest plant breeder more accustomed to long days in the field than hobnobbing with heads of state, he knew his life was about to change. His unwavering vision and brilliant application of scientific principals changed the lives of billions. In Freedom From Famine: The Norman Borlaug Story, Norman Borlaug himself tells his inspirational story accompanied by friends, family, peers, students, scientists, experts, and politicians who helped him along the way. We had unprecedented access to Dr. Borlaug for over 2 years and compiled the most comprehensive archive of photographs and film images depicting how he became the father of the Green Revolution. His was a life of struggle against doomsayers, intransigent government officials, obstinate bureaucracies, and persistence to get the message out—especially to students—that we can indeed feed all the hungry people of the world.

A central figure in the "green revolution", Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914- September 12, 2009) was born on a farm near Cresco, Iowa, to Henry and Clara Borlaug.

After completing his primary and secondary education in Cresco, Borlaug enrolled in the University of Minnesota where he studied forestry. Immediately before and immediately after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1937, he worked for the U.S. Forestry Service at stations in Massachusetts and Idaho. Returning to the University of Minnesota to study plant pathology, he received the master's degree in 1939 and the doctorate in 1942.

From 1942 to 1944, he was a microbiologist on the staff of the du Pont de Nemours Foundation where he was in charge of research on industrial and agricultural bactericides, fungicides, and preservatives.

In 1944 he accepted an appointment as geneticist and plant pathologist assigned the task of organizing and directing the Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in Mexico. This program, a joint undertaking by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation, involved scientific research in genetics, plant breeding, plant pathology, entomology, agronomy, soil science, and cereal technology. Within twenty years he was spectacularly successful in finding a high-yielding short-strawed, disease-resistant wheat.

To his scientific goal he soon added that of the practical humanitarian: arranging to put the new cereal strains into extensive production in order to feed the hungry people of the world—and thus providing, a temporary success in man's war against hunger and deprivation, a breathing space in which to deal with the "Population Monster" and the subsequent environmental and social ills that too often lead to conflict between men and between nations. The success of his programs in Mexico, India and Pakistan, which ultimately spread around the world, eventually became known as The Green Revolution.

The Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, in cooperation with the Mexican government, established the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), an autonomous international research training institute having an international board of trustees and staff. Dr. Borlaug was made director of its international wheat improvement program. In this capacity Borlaug was able to realize a third objective: training young scientists in research and production methods.

In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Borlaug was awarded in 1977 the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2007 the Congressional Gold Medal. He was also recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor. Norman Borlaug has also received extensive recognition from universities and organizations in six countries: Canada, India, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, the United States. In 1968 he received an especially satisfying tribute when the people of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, in whose area he did some of his first experimenting, named a street in his honor.