Greatest Living American Ignored

[Sapphire Blue]

The Man Who Fed the World

Greatest Living American Ignored
Gregg Easterbrook
Posted July 17, 2007 | 07:52 PM (EST)

Today in Washington I was in the room as the greatest living American received a medal. George W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi and others were present. But will you ever hear this event occurred? To judge from tonight's major network evening newscasts, perhaps not. Cameras were allowed at the ceremony but I saw none from the major networks, though the international press was significantly represented. And will you recognize this great man's name when I say it?

The greatest living American is Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, and joins Jimmy Carter as the two living American-born laureates around whose necks this distinction as been placed. Do you know Borlaug's achievement? Would you recognize him if he sat on your lap? Norman Borlaug WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, yet is anonymous in the land of his birth.

Born 1914 in Cresco, Iowa, Borlaug has saved more lives than anyone else who has ever lived. A plant breeder, in the 1940s he moved to Mexico to study how to adopt high-yield crops to feed impoverished nations. Through the 1940s and 1950s, Borlaug developed high-yield wheat strains, then patiently taught the new science of Green Revolution agriculture to poor farmers of Mexico and nations to its south. When famine struck India and Pakistan in the mid-1960s, Borlaug and a team of Mexican assistants raced to the Subcontinent and, often working within sight of artillery flashes from the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, sowed the first high-yield cereal crop in that region; in a decade, India's food production increased sevenfold, saving the Subcontinent from predicted Malthusian catastrophes. Borlaug moved on to working in South America. Every nation his green thumb touched has known dramatic food production increases plus falling fertility rates (as the transition from subsistence to high-tech farm production makes knowledge more important than brawn), higher girls' education rates (as girls and young women become seen as carriers of knowledge rather than water) and rising living standards for average people. Last fall, Borlaug crowned his magnificent career by persuading the Ford, Rockefeller and Bill & Melinda Gates foundations to begin a major push for high-yield farming in Africa, the one place the Green Revolution has not reached.

Yet Borlaug is unknown in the United States, and if my unscientific survey of tonight's major newscasts is reliable, television tonight ignored his receipt of the Congressional Gold Medal, America's highest civilian award. I clicked around to ABC, CBS and NBC and heard no mention of Borlaug; no piece about him is posted on these networks' evening news websites; CBS Evening News did have time for video of a bicycle hitting a dog. (I am not making that up.) Will the major papers say anything about Borlaug tomorrow?

Borlaug's story is ignored because his is a story of righteousness -- shunning wealth and comfort, this magnificent man lived nearly all his life in impoverished nations. If he'd blown something up, lied under oath or been caught offering money for fun, ABC, CBS and NBC would have crowded the Capitol Rotunda today with cameras, hoping to record an embarrassing gaffe. Because instead Borlaug devoted his life to serving the poor, he is considered Not News. All I can say after watching him today is that I hope Borlaug isn't serious about retiring, as there is much work to be done -- and I hope when I'm 93 years old I can speak without notes, as he did.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregg-easterbrook/greatest-living-american-_b_56665.html

[HonorTheConstitution]

1. Shows the real morality and values the average American (not) cares about

[melody]

4. I care about them and I'm frighteningly average lol n/t

[HonorTheConstitution]

16. Sorry, did not want to offend thirten people, :-)

[melody]

19. Just in the Appalachian Hunger Project alone, there are 10,000 people

There are lots of people interested. The only people the consumer-based media dotes on are the people who consume. They'll naturally ignore the rest of us.

[blm]

2. Thankyou for brining this here. Too many Americans have been conditioned into

desiring all the WRONG things in leaders and lawmakers.

Thoughtfulness, humanity, and a keen focus on solutions for serious problems are ignored while affability and character flaws are pushed as more attractive and more interesting qualities.

[melody]

3. Thanks so much for posting this!

I missed it at Huffpost this morning. Borlaug is one of my heroes. A truly great man.

[Sapphire Blue]

11. Did you read the other thread?

It's the one @ the top of the OP under the photo of the book...

The Man Who Fed the World: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/422

[Unreconstructed Lib]

18. Following your journal page to his extended biography, I found this:

"New IR-8 rice spread rapidly as peasant farmers with small plots were suddenly able to experience both increased yields and double crops. This in turn led to tangible improvements in the quality of life: child mortality dropped; malnutrition abated; and children, especially girls, stayed in school longer.

"At the same time, there was a rapid corresponding decrease in the level of armed conflict and military hostilities. It was as though the combination of new roads and new rice seed caused the roots of violent extremism to wither and disappear in a way that military action alone could not."

So it seems that helping people obtain what they need by sharing knowledge and resources has a very bad effect on war. This could go a long way toward explaining why today's proceedings will be littled noted in the media.

Congratulations, Mr. Borlaug. Man-made medals are poor contrivances but they will have to suffice until we can truly honor your greatness by ending famine and conflict forever.

[Spiffarino]

28. You nailed it. War is money, and plenty of food means no war.

Stop this man before he feeds again!
:sarcasm:

[gauguin57]

5. I think Jed Bartlett (Martin Sheen) talked about him on an episode of the West Wing

... in a wonderfully profound way, of course.

[ashling]

8. I remember that one

[Perky]

12. yep it was a discussion about dwarf wheat

and how it blew up the the malthusian/Paul Erlich population bomb theory.

[piedmont]

32. I can't fuckin' believe it. DUers who actually think there's not a population crisis.

JEEEZUS, people!

[Perky]

40. I never said there wasn't a popultion crisis

Just that Dwarf wheat debunkes the Malthusian proposition. The idea behind DW is that it took far less space to grow and was thus far mor able to sustain the wheat needs of an expanded population. The jump in wheat yields in far less space is stupefying


Its not thatthere is not a pupulation bomb, it is simply that we are now far more capable of feeding the population.

[piedmont]

54. The jump in wheat yields is at the cost of fossil fuels used to make and spread synthetic fertilizer

Our agriculture is now being heavily subsidized by non-renewable energy. That means it's not sustainable. That means it won't actually sustain the expanded population in the long run. We're not more capable of feeding population-- our one-time gift of fossil fuel has allowed us to fool ourselves into thinking that we are.

[entanglement]

56. In the face of global food shortages in the 1960s

what else do you think could have been done? Sure, Borlaug's methods have their shortfalls, but the immediate success they achieved - staving off hunger, starvation and death was commendable and a triumph for humanity.

To use an analogy, chemotherapy has side-effects but you wouldn't say it's worse than cancer for that reason.

I hope you don't believe that every human crisis (hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS) should be met with indifference because it is a result of overpopulation or that the lives of people in the developing world are somehow less valuable.

[piedmont]

57. Like I said, these were short-term gains, and they should have been explained as such.

"Green Revolution" agriculture will not be possible when fuel is no longer cheap and abundant. The fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, etc. that these strains need are produced, distributed and applied using fossil fuels. This form of agriculture is also so destructive to soil fertility that we'll be worse off than before.
This should have been a stop-gap measure, and the emphasis should have been placed on reducing population growth rates and developing sustainable agricultural methods. Instead, we've been coasting along toward hitting 10 billion people at about the time oil and natural gas production will start to decline from year to year

"I hope you don't believe that every human crisis (hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS) should be met with indifference because it is a result of overpopulation or that the lives of people in the developing world are somehow less valuable. "

I've said no such thing. What I have said is that this Monsanto-ization of agriculture may lead to more death and poverty than if sustainable methods had been used back when the world population was only 3 billion, and that in the not-so-distant future we'll be forced to do use those sustainable methods anyway-- but we'll be doing it on depleted, degraded soils.

[Pirate Smile]

48. Wow - your response to this OP is unbelievable. This comment and

the one below.

[piedmont]

55. I call bullshit when I see it. If you have a problem with that you should formulate a rational...

argument.

[lazyriver]

6. I must admit I had not heard of him.

I'm a bit embarrassed but even more disappointed his story was never taught in school (K thru college, at least in my case).

Thank you for enlightening me.

[ashling]

10. I read about him and

his work when I was in high school (actually it may have been just after high school) in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

[Martin Eden]

7. If he wanted to be famous ...

... he should have married Anna Nicole Smith.

[Rambis]

9. Just the kind of people we raise here

in the heartland!

[hfojvt]

13. Cool story

and his name did not ring bells to me either. But I have heard mixed reviews of the 'Green revolution'. That by requiring high cost, high input hybrids, that it pushed alot of small farmers out of business and into the cities where they live in severe poverty.

Wendell Berry's book is not indexed so I cannot tell if he mentions Borlaug in his discussion about agriculture.

[Chulanowa]

21. It's a double-edged sword

On the one hand, no sane person wants other people to go hungry when there is food available.
On the other hand, no sane person really wants the kind of poverty and environmental damage that can be caused by feeding all these people, either.

[colorado_ufo]

45. That is actually an assumption.

What actually happens, in fact and as described, is that the quality of life increases and the problems of overpopulation self-correct, through education and the desire for even greater quality of life. As circumstances change, people change, along with their beliefs and attitudes, and then circumstances change more.

Life is not a static model. What this compels us to do is always look ahead. Change is constant and inevitable; what we need to do is guide that change to a positive outcome.

[ceile]

14. Thanks for posting that.

I am one of the many who have never heard of him. Thank you for educating me.

[Hawkowl]

15. The average American DOES care

It is our corrupt, profit driven, anti-human, anti-environment, pro-death media that strives to ignore heroes of a non-materialistic bent. If the Dems are to retake control of the country, the number one value they will have to espouse is that not everything can be valued in terms of the almighty dollar.

[AwakeAtLast]

17. You won't believe where I DID read his story

It's called "The Bathroom Reader's Institute Bathroom Reader". I shit you not (no pun intended). I read it because of the mountain of information I never knew before. This man has a profile in book #18, and I found it fascinating! Instead of MSM, he gets honored in a bathroom book. :eyes:

Thank you for posting this! :hi:

[Richard Steele]

25. K&R

[waiting for hope]

20. This are the people that

make America great. Thank you so much for sharing this SB, a big kick and rec!

[Jade Fox]

22. Thanks for posting this.....n/t

[Time for change]

23. It's so sad that the American people don't hear more of these kind of things

[Laelth]

24. k&r

here's someone we can be proud of.

-Laelth

[Spiffarino]

26. Tom Harkin recently talked about him

Sadly, it was the first I'd ever heard of this magnificent man. Who could ever pick up the mantle when he's gone?

Pray that he'll live long enough to bring his green miracle to Africa.

Edit: Changed to Tom Harkin from "Thom Hartmann" (duh). Harkin spoke on the floor of the Senate the day after their all-nighter. It was very moving.

[Sapphire Blue]

29. Bringing the Green Revolution to Africa

Bringing the Green Revolution to Africa

Since 1986, Dr. Borlaug has headed the Sasakawa Africa Association whose programs aim at defeating malnutrition and poverty in Africa. Its activities center on bringing science-based crop production methods to the small farms of sub-Saharan Africa. Proven agricultural technology is the key to overcoming widespread food shortages that condemn millions of people in Africa to lives of hardship and hunger.

Part of the Sasakawa Global 2000 endeavor, Sasakawa Africa projects are under way in a dozen African countries. In addition to its partnerships with ministries of agriculture, the Sasakawa Africa Association collaborates with NGOs, businesses, and international development agencies. Perhaps the most significant achievement of this effort is the successful development of highly nutritious corn – known as Quality Protein Maize – offers great promise in preventing acute malnutrition among children in Ghana, Mozambique, and other African countries, as well as in Mexico. Perfected by a longtime Borlaug protégé at the Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, Dr. Borlaug and the Sasakawa Africa Association have helped spread this life-saving food into villages with immediate effect – enhancing and saving the lives of thousands and thousands of children.


http://www.worldfoodprize.org/borlaug/borlaug-history.htm#greenrevolutionafrica

Related thread:

The Man Who Fed the World: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/422

[Spiffarino]

30. Wow...thanks, Speedy!

:D:thumbsup:

[senseandsensibility]

33. I'm glad that Tom Harking mentioned him

Now if we could only get our "media" to do the same...

[RedEarth]

27. I went to school(college) with his son

however, I never had the chance to meet his dad. I remember Bill, his son, talking about the work his dad was involved with and how it was helping some of the underdeveloped countries with food production...sure enough, it became to be known as the Green Revolution. Certainly worthy of the Nobel Prize.

[colorado_ufo]

46. I am amazed that he had a family!

This must have taken a lot of sacrifice on their part, as well.

[RedEarth]

53. I'm sure it did take a lot of sacrifice since he was gone so much

His son always spoke very highly of his dad and as college students we were somewhat in awe of his father's accomplishments. Below is an article I found from the Dallas Morning News telling some more about Dr. Borlaug's life. It also mentions a little about his family.

..........

http://www.normanborlaug.org/267339_borlaug_21liv..html ... more at this link



High Profile: Norman Borlaug

01/21/2001

By David Tarrant / The Dallas Morning News


COLLEGE STATION, Texas – He works out of a windowless office barely big enough for a desk and two chairs for visitors. Lining the walls are shelves filled with books on agriculture and philosophy, a few framed photographs taken in Africa and Mexico, and a large poster of the University of Minnesota's wrestling team schedule.

........

Dr. Borlaug is married to the former Margaret Gibson, whom he met in college. The Borlaugs keep a home in Dallas, so Mrs. Borlaug can live close to their two children, Jeanie Laube and William Borlaug. The Borlaugs also have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Borlaug, 89, says she doesn't travel anymore because of her arthritis. Dr. Borlaug spends only about a month at home each year. "He's never been home a lot. You just live with it."

But he always made time for his children, she says. When the family was living in Mexico, Dr. Borlaug organized a baseball team for his son. In the process, Dr. Borlaug helped introduce Little League baseball to Mexico.

He coached Billy through Little League, Pony League and Colt League. He also attended many of Jeanie's Girl Scout meetings. "He'd drive many a night getting back for his kids," Mrs. Borlaug says.

When he is not teaching at Texas A&M, Dr. Borlaug spends a great deal of time traveling in Mexico and Africa as part of his work. He is a consultant to the International Maize and Wheat Center in Mexico and president of the Sasakawa Africa Association, a private Japanese foundation working to raise the productivity of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

The latter "is a program that happened in a funny way," Dr. Borlaug says. In 1984, he got a call from Ryoichi Sasakawa, chairman of the Sasakawa Foundation of Japan, who has since passed away.

Mr. Sasakawa wanted to know if the Green Revolution's agricultural methods could be applied to Ethiopia, Sudan and other parts of Africa suffering from drought and famine.

"Why isn't something being done to change food production like what you did in India and Pakistan?" Dr. Sasakawa asked him.

"I don't know," Dr. Borlaug replied. "I'm retired now and too old to start something new."

The next morning Mr. Sasakawa called him back and said, "Young man, I'm 15 years older than you are. We should have started this project yesterday, but let's get started tomorrow."

And the work is not over yet.


http://www.normanborlaug.org/267339_borlaug_21liv..html

[piedmont]

31. Green Revolution in a nutshell: crop strains that require high fertilizer load, pesticide...

water, herbicide, and recently, genetic modification to temporarily delude us into thinking that the earth's capacity to feed humanity is endless. When the cheap energy that enables all this is used up, and the played-out, poisoned soil of millions of acres of cropland have to be made fertile again without the use of synthetic fertilizer, and the new strains won't grow well anymore and the heirloom strains are lost because of the insidiousness of Monsanto, et al., will we still hold him up as a saint?

[emmadoggy]

34. Wow, I admit I hadn't heard of him, but it's very cool to know that

he was born 23 miles from my hometown!! (40 from where I currently live).

Great story.

[Lifelong Protester]

35. I DID know who he is...

but that is because I am from Minnesota originally, and he is fairly well known here (well, at least if you are a boomer or older). But I think it is great when someone again mentions one of the quiet heroes, whose heroism comes from deeds that are brought about by ideals and a feeling of devotion to the welfare of others.

Thanks Dr. Borlaug!

[FredStembottom]

36. I admit, I only learned of him about a year ago....

when he was chronicalled on my local PBS station.

If I remember right, it wasn't even a PBS production but a local Twin Cities Public TV (Minnesota) production.

[Sapphire Blue]

37. Coming up on Iowa Public TV: “Out of Iowa: Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution”, updated

Borlaug on TV

WHEN: Iowa Public Television will broadcast the documentary “Out of Iowa: Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution,”at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

WHAT: The program, which traces the life and achievements of the Cresco, Ia., native, will be updated with footage from today’s ceremony, when Borlaug receives the Congressional Gold Medal.

MORE: In addition, Iowa Public Television’s national agribusiness program “Market to Market” will feature a report about Borlaug’s work and accomplishments at8 p.m. Friday, and again at noon Sunday.


http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070717/NEWS/707170369/1001/LIFE01

[Blue_Tires]

38. k+r

[BulletproofLandshark]

39. Thanks for posting this link.

I have to admit that I've never heard of Norman Borlaug. It's almost criminal that a person like this doesn't appear in our newspapers and books more. Mr. Borlaug is a credit not only to America, but the entire human race.

[xchrom]

41. recommend

[On the Road]

42. The Green Revolution Hasn't Reached Africa Yet?

That is unbelievable. And cause for hope.

[MasonJar]

43. Thank you for sharing the info on a truly distinguished American.

[Pirate Smile]

44. Iowa papers cover him - kind of "local boy done good" stories.

Borlaug awarded Congressional Gold Medal
By E. Michael Myers

Bush presented Dr. Norman Borlaug, a native of Cresco, with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow, in a ceremony below the soaring dome of the Capitol Rotunda and a frieze of America's accomplishments in aviation, industry and agriculture.

-snip-
The Iowa congressional delegation united in working to gain approval of the rarely bestowed award to Borlaug (the medal was first given to George Washington). He also has the Presidential Medal of Freedom and 1970's Nobel Peace Prize.

When Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize, he said, "You can't build peace on empty stomachs."

-snip-
Harkin said Borlaug's work reminded him of Proverbs -- "where there is no vision, people perish. His vision was the Green Revolution. Because of his vision and his commitment, people did not die. Not bad for a farm boy from central Iowa."

http://gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070717/NEWS/70717015/-1/rss01&rssfeed=rss01

[HamdenRice]

47. There is something so different about this from big Ag bio-engineering

Some of the scientists who have had the greatest impact on agriculture have worked in ways that are completely different from big Ag's approach. Gregor Mendel, George Washington Carver and Norman E. Borlaug basically had the patience to observe plants over many seasons, to breed them to save good seeds -- and that's completely different from the current approach of "manufacturing" new varieties by manipulating and inserting genes.

A big part of the green revolution also was saving indigenous, or "land race," seeds from cultures all over the world, and storing them for all humanity. That led to the International Rice Research Institute, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Institute and others and the slow process of cross breeding that created the hybrids we now rely on.

[ooglymoogly]

49. A saint amongst thieves is not well tolerated....nt nom

[senseandsensibility]

50. This is such an interesting story

I hate our "press" for ignoring people like this and reveling in every celeb non-story 24/7. :puke: They can't even cover him on the day he receives his award for a few minutes when they have MONTHS for Paris Hilton?

[Sapphire Blue]

51. To be fair, there has been press coverage, just not *major* US press coverage.

Selected Press Coverage

"Borlaug receives rare 'triple crown'"
(The Des Moines Register, July 17, 2007)

"Borlaug has earned place among giants"
(The Des Moines Register Editorial, July 17, 2007)

"He saved a billion lives"
(Washington Times guest editorial by Elizabeth M. Whelan, July 18, 2007)

"Greatest Living American Ignored"
(Posted by Gregg Easterbrook on The Huffington Post, July 17, 2007)

"A thanks to Mr. Borlaug for feeding the world"
(The Des Moines Register, July 18, 2007


http://www.worldfoodprize.org/press_room/2007/july/borlaug-congressional.htm

I posted two other threads about Dr. Borlaug... first this one: Pelosi: No Person Has Done More Than Dr. Norman Borlaug to Liberate the World From Hunger: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/421


.. then tried again w/this one: The Man Who Fed the World: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/422


For some reason, the other two threads received relatively little response, while this one caught DUers attention. :shrug: Personally, I prefer The Man Who Fed the World OP... it has much more info.

[senseandsensibility]

52. I'm glad some newspapers are covering it

especially Iowa newspapers, since he is a native son. Still, the broadcast "news" stations can't be bothered, and they're the ones that run paris 24/7. You'd think they could spare a couple of minutes on the day the man gets an award.