The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

taken from Amazon.com In Jimmy Carter's introduction to this book he points out the Norman Borlang has the distinction as one of the 100 most influential individuals of the 20th century. Dr. Borlang was the 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Price. This was awarded for his work in saving the lives of more people - hundreds of millions, perhaps over a billion - from starvation than any person in history. He, as much as any other individual deserves the title, The Father of the Green Revolution. In the late 1960s, most experts said that global famines in which billions would die would soon occur. Biologist Paul R. Ehrlich wrote in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, 'The battle to feed all of humanity is over... In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.' Ehrlich also said, 'I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971,' and 'India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.' Thanks to Dr. Borlaug, Paul Erlich was wrong. Note that this doesn not mean that the problems are over. The Green Revolution plants take more water, more fertilizer (made from oil) than the older plants. There is an ongoing debate about biotechnology and food supplies. And of course, population growth cannot continue forever. But without Dr. Borlaug there would have been a lot more dying. And besides this just might sound like Paul Erlich.