NORMAN Borlaug died on Saturday from complications due to cancer.
His name may not be a household word to many, but to those in the ag community Norman E. Borlaug was a giant.
The man who received a 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for developing, high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat used to prevent famine in developing countries throughout the world is credited with saving the lives of millions.
Today, India and Pakistan are self-sufficient in food production due to Borlaug's work and his team, which resulted in the 'green revolution' lifting grain yields to new levels especially in Asia.
At Texas A&M university, Borlaug at 95 still kept office hours and talked with students until near the end. He was Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture in the university's department of soil and crop sciences.
In 2007, Borlaug received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor of the United States. This capped a string of major awards and honors throughout his scientific and humanitarian career.
"We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted," Borlaug said in a recent interview. "There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is commonplace, and famine appears all too often."
Until recently, Borlaug still traveled internationally working tirelessly for improvements in agricultural science and food policy.
His childhood days were spent on an Iowa farm, influenced by his Norwegian grandfather's lessons on common sense. At the University of Minnesota, where he began his college education during the Depression of the 1930s, he was told his high school education had not prepared him properly in science and math. He failed an entrance exam and was placed in the General College.
But that experience made Borlaug work hard on his studies. He earned meals as a restaurant waiter and paid for tuition and books by saving money from summer jobs.
During World War II, Borlaug was in charge of industrial and agricultural chemical research for a DuPont laboratory. In 1944, after his release from the War Manpower Commission, he became a scientist for the Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program - a joint venture between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican government which began his life-long passion for international agriculture.
This project became the institution known as CIMMYT, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) near Mexico City.
In this program, he introduced scientific techniques for preventing famine in Mexico and began bringing into the program promising young scientists, later named “Borlaug Interns.”
He used the lessons learned in Mexico later to disprove 1960s doomsday predictions of mass famine throughout South and East Asia.
By this time, “Borlaug Interns” were coming from many countries, and these interns were instrumental in implementing what was later named the “Green Revolution” in wheat production.
In 1970, that Nobel Peace Prize for this work recognised that agricultural productivity has a pivotal role in creating stability and preventing conflict.
In 1984, he came to Texas A&M as Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture, dividing his time between College Station each autumn to teach and at CIMMYT in Mexico each spring where he continued research and participation in global efforts to reduce world hunger.
Borlaug’s passions extended beyond agriculture. He loved sports and started Little League Baseball in Mexico City so that his then-young son, William Gibson Borlaug, could play while the family was living there.
He was also passionate about training, mentoring and challenging young scientists, instilling in them the desire to teach and adopt science-based practices that increase the world’s food supply and thus serve mankind by leading to a more peaceful world.
At Texas A&M in 2006, the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture was named in his honour. The Borlaug Institute is currently working in some of the world's most challenging agricultural development environments such as Afghanistan, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Iraq.
“It is the hope of the Borlaug family that his life be an example to all. We would like his life be a model for making a difference in the lives of others and to bring about efforts to end human misery for all mankind,” his children stated.
“One of his favorite quotes was ‘reach for the stars. Although you will never touch them, if you reach hard enough, you will find that you get a little ‘star dust’ on you in the process!’”
* For more information on the memorial service and Borlaug's complete vitae, please visit borlaug.tamu.edu.
Email a friend