NORMAN BORLAUG IS NOT THE sort of name you think of when it
\ncomes to world-historical heroism. A Norwegian Lutheran son of
\nIowa, he grew up on the prairie, went to college during the
\nDepression, studied the thoroughly unglamorous subject of agriculture,
\nenjoyed wrestling, met his wife while waiting tables at a university
\nDinkytown coffee shop where they both worked, and had three
\nkids. He never starred in a movie, never ran for office, never led men
\ninto battle, and would not have been noticeable to you if you saw him
\nin the street.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, and he saved the lives of a billion people.<\/p>\n
Norman Borlaug was the father of the Green Revolution, an awesome
\nscientific undertaking of twentieth-century American agricultural
\nscience that resulted in the breeding of fantastically fruitful
\nstrains of food plants that kept the burgeoning population of the
\nworld (especially the Third World) from starving to death. Almost
\nnobody has heard of him owing to the characteristic modesty of his
\ngeneration and cultural background, but without him we could well
\nbe living in a post-apocalyptic nightmare.<\/p>\n
That nightmare was sketched for us in 1968 by a self-anointed
\nprophet named Paul Ehrlich, who knew everything except what he
\nwas talking about. In his book The Population Bomb, Ehrlich set the
\npace still followed by our culture of death when he embraced the
\nMalthusian approach to the problem of feeding humanity by curling
\nup in a ball, proclaiming defeat, and saying with Scrooge, \u201cIf the poor
\nbe like to die, they had better do it and help decrease the surplus population.\u201d
\nAs Ehrlich put it, \u201cThe battle to feed all of humanity is
\nover\u2026. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will
\nstarve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.\u201d
\nHe added, \u201cI have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who
\nthinks India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971,\u201d and \u201cIndia
\ncouldn\u2019t possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.\u201d
\nThe prophet of doom didn\u2019t reckon on Norman Borlaug, whose
\nnew strains of plants produced enormous yields that doubled India\u2019s
\nfood production, made Mexico a grain exporter, and saved the lives
\nof a billion people throughout the world.<\/p>\n
When Ehrlich dies, I sincerely hope that this apostle of defeat and
\ncontraception will not hear the words spoken to the servant who hid
\nhis one talent in the ground (see Matthew 25:14\u201330). But I am confident
\nthat if anybody stands a good chance of hearing from Jesus \u201cI
\nwas hungry and you gave me food,\u201d it will be Norman Borlaug, who
\ngoes down in history, without any possible comparison, as the guy
\nwho gave more food to the \u201cleast of these\u201d than anybody who ever
\nlived. We can certainly pray with hope that when he died on
\nSeptember 9, 2009, he heard (perhaps with the same surprise as the
\nsheep in the parable), \u201cCome, O blessed of my Father, inherit the
\nkingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world\u201d
\n(Matthew 25:34).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A reader sends along a encomium to him here. My own praise for this great man is found in The Work of Mercy: NORMAN BORLAUG IS NOT THE sort of name you think of when it comes to world-historical heroism. A Norwegian Lutheran son of Iowa, he grew up on the prairie, went to college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-91989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-works-of-mercy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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