The Man Who Saved 1 Billion People...

[Warped]

...has died today

Norman Borlaug received a Congressional Gold Medal from then President George W. Bush on July 17, 2007.

Norman Borlaug dies at 95

CNN) -- Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95.

Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said.

A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university.

Borlaug started at Texas A&M in 1984, after working as a scientist in a program that introduced scientific techniques for preventing famine in Mexico, according to the university.

Until recently, he traveled worldwide working for improvements in agricultural science and food policy, said Kathleen Phillips, a university spokeswoman.

Borlaug was known as a champion of high-yield crop varieties, and other science and agricultural innovations to help fight hunger in developing nations. iReport.com: Tour Borlaug's boyhood farm

"We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted," Borlaug said recently in an interview posted on the university's Web site.

"There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is a commonplace, and famine appears all too often."

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, according to the university's Web site.

The agriculture institute at the university was named after him in 2006.

Borlaug also created the World Food Prize, which recognized the work of scientists and humanitarians who have helped fight world hunger through advanced agriculture, the university said.

A memorial service will be held at the university at a later date.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/13/nobel.borlaug.wheat/index.html

can you imagine how many people that is?? 1 billion people, most of us will come into contact probably just 10 million different people in our lifetime.

 

[Eejit]

A sad day. A great man.

He's one of the main reasons I decided to go into the field of plant science and crop genetics.

 

[Zubin]

No need to mourn over death. He served his purpose in life and will be remembered for it.

 

[MJ12]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

 

[VirusType2]

I was going to post this news early this morning. Great man.

 

[Sedako]

I figured this thread was going to be about this guy.

Regardless, the world now has one less great man.

 

[Some_God]

Inadvertently, his accomplishment aided the overpopulation of smelly humans on this planet.

 

[jet_porkins]

No need to mourn over death. He served his purpose in life and will be remembered for it.

Do you know what the word "mourning" means?

 

[Dog--]

Les Paul lived longer, this guys a pussy.

 

[Eejit]

Inadvertently, his accomplishment aided the overpopulation of smelly humans on this planet.

The solution to overpopulation is birth control, not letting people die of starvation.

 

[Sheepo]

Do you know what the word "mourning" means?

I just looked up the definition to be sure, and he seems to have a logical point based off of it.

 

[gFrohman]

An incredible person - he will be missed.

 

[Warped]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

Penn and Teller are so much better at proving their point than most groups out there. I'm wouldn't be surprised if they didn't go into politics. Also these issues we face with starvation i think are only going to get worse because of deforestation and erosion problems that are now cropping up. just wait until the entire planet looks like a desert and there are no fish in the sea.

 

[LoneWanderer]

Yeah, lets trade million asians and blacks for a thousand europeans.

 

[Eejit]

A rather awesome interview with the guy from 2000
http://www.reason.com/news/show/27665.html

Reason: What other problems do you see in Africa?

Borlaug: Supplying food to sub-Saharan African countries is made very complex because of a lack of infrastructure. For example, you bring fertilizer into a country like Ethiopia, and the cost of transporting the fertilizer up the mountain a few hundred miles to Addis Ababa doubles its cost. All through sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of roads is one of the biggest obstacles to development--and not just from the standpoint of moving agricultural inputs in and moving increased grain production to the cities. That's part of it, but I think roads also have great indirect value. If a road is built going across tribal groups and some beat-up old bus starts moving, in seven or eight years you'll hear people say, "You know, that tribe over there, they aren't so different from us after all, are they?"

And once there's a road and some vehicles moving along it, then you can build schools near a road. You go into the bush and you can get parents to build a school from local materials, but you can't get a teacher to come in because she or he will say, "Look, I spent six, eight years preparing myself to be a teacher. Now you want me to go back there in the bush? I won't be able to come out and see my family or friends for eight, nine months. No, I'm not going." The lack of roads in Africa greatly hinders agriculture, education, and development.

Reason: What do you think of organic farming? A lot of people claim it's better for human health and the environment.

Borlaug: That's ridiculous. This shouldn't even be a debate. Even if you could use all the organic material that you have--the animal manures, the human waste, the plant residues--and get them back on the soil, you couldn't feed more than 4 billion people. In addition, if all agriculture were organic, you would have to increase cropland area dramatically, spreading out into marginal areas and cutting down millions of acres of forests.

At the present time, approximately 80 million tons of nitrogen nutrients are utilized each year. If you tried to produce this nitrogen organically, you would require an additional 5 or 6 billion head of cattle to supply the manure. How much wild land would you have to sacrifice just to produce the forage for these cows? There's a lot of nonsense going on here.

If people want to believe that the organic food has better nutritive value, it's up to them to make that foolish decision. But there's absolutely no research that shows that organic foods provide better nutrition. As far as plants are concerned, they can't tell whether that nitrate ion comes from artificial chemicals or from decomposed organic matter. If some consumers believe that it's better from the point of view of their health to have organic food, God bless them. Let them buy it. Let them pay a bit more. It's a free society. But don't tell the world that we can feed the present population without chemical fertilizer. That's when this misinformation becomes destructive.

The whole thing is well worth a read. Especially for people brainwashed by Greenpeace and their bullshit *coughjvernecough*

 

[Tyguy]

if there is a heaven and this guy doesn't get in we all might as well rape and pillage

rip