His name may not have been as well known as some others but Borlaug, who died this past Saturday at the age of 95, was quite probably one of the most important figures of the 20th century. He was called the father of the Green Revolution, a sweeping transformation of agriculture that occurred during the middle part of the century.
Perhaps his most famous achievement was the development of dwarf wheat, a special strain which could survive in environments that were too harsh for other strains. This was of particular importance in India and Pakistan. During the mid 1960’s these nations were literally on the brink of mass starvation. The threat of war over food was quite real and given the convergence of China, India and Pakistan in that part of the world, such a war could have been disastrous.
Borlaug’s new wheat helped to stop that path to war and starvation, and some experts say that it helped to save one billion people from starvation. Heaven only knows how many could have died in what well could have become a global conflict between the East and the West.
For his efforts Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Prize. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he quoted the prize’s creator, Alfred Nobel: “I would rather take care of the stomachs of the living than the glory of the departed in the form of monuments.”
He was a great man and we should all take time to note his passing.