By Jason Sibert
Norman Borlaug was one of 21 Americans to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
He won in 1970 for his contributions to increasing the world food supply. Borlaug was called “the father of the green revolution.” His scientific breakthroughs – several varieties of high-yield, heat resistant wheat – saved a billion people from starvation. His discoveries led to Mexico becoming a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat production improved in then poor countries like India and Pakistan and food security was increased.
Borlaug was the great-great grandchild of immigrants from Norway. He grew up on a farm in Iowa and studied forestry at the University of Minnesota. In those years, he put his education on hold at one time and worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many of the people he worked with in the CCC were starving. This made an impact on him.
“I saw how food changed them,” Borlaug said. “And all of this left scars on me.”
He later worked for the United States Forest Service and for DuPont as a microbiologist. Borlaug was eventually director of the International Wheat Improvement Program. The program benefitted from grants from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. The scientist was in Mexico when he conducted his big scientific breakthroughs. Biologist Paul Ehrilch predicted in the book “The Population Bomb” that millions would die in the 1970’s and 1980’s because the world’s population would outpace its ability to produce enough food. Bourlaug’s breakthroughs helped make Ehrilch’s dire predictions a false alarm.
“When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee designated me the recipient of the 1970 award for my contribution to the “green revolution,” they were in effect, I believe, selecting an individual to symbolize the vital role of agriculture and food production in a world that is hungry, both for bread and for peace,” said Bourlaug.
The Nobel Prize winning scientist also held insights into helping humanity fight the greenhouse effect. He advocated increasing crop yields to prevent deforestation, as increasing productivity on current farmland will help us control deforestation by reducing demand for new farmland. More forests would serve as a carbon sink to sequester carbon dioxide.
Borlaug passed away in 2009, but his life means much to those who are struggling for a world defined by peace, progress, and weapons of production and not more weapons of destruction. His work would not have been possible if it were not for the money allocated to research and development. Borlaug’s work was funded by private foundations but much of the work for scientific research and development comes from the government. This brings us to a relevant question. What type of scientific progress could we make if we spend more on research and development and less on the wants of the military-industrial complex? What if we could move the current geopolitical struggles of the world out of the military sphere and into the economic, scientific, and political spheres? Could we cooperate with our competitors on the greenhouse effect, nuclear proliferation, and other things that threaten the security of our world? The answer is yes, but can our politics catch up with this simple idea?
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project in St Louis.
