Posted on 04/02/2014 9:37:01 AM PDT by MichCapCon
I was 21-years-old before I first heard the name Norman Borlaug. It’s a shame it took until my third year of college to learn about one of the greatest humans who ever lived.
Borlaug, who died in 2009, was an Iowa-born scientist who spent his life teaching new farming techniques in third world countries. His movement was eventually called the "Green Revolution."
Borlaug was introduced to me during a discussion about another of my heroes — the late economist Julian Simon. Simon was the author of, "The Ultimate Resource," in which he argued ferociously against Malthusian concerns about overpopulation. One of Simon's main points was that human ingenuity was the greatest of resources, able to overcome problems seemingly caused by finite resources.
This debate still exists, but it was much more strident a few decades ago, culminating with the 1968 bestseller, "The Population Bomb," by Paul Ehrlich. In the book, Ehrlich infamously predicted a coming economic crash resulting from overpopulation:
The battle to feed all of humanity is over ... In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. He later said, 'I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971,' and 'India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.' The book stated that it was "a fantasy" that India would "ever" feed itself.
(Interestingly, I was introduced to Ehrlich’s book as a freshman in high school. What a sad state of education when Ehrlich, who lost a famous bet with Simon, is mandatory reading at many schools while few people are aware of Borlaug.)
In the meantime, Borlaug was putting into place what Ehrlich claimed was impossible. His work began being used in India in the early 1960s and by the mid-1970s (a few years after Ehrlich’s claims) the country was feeding itself. As noted by Ronald Bailey, the science correspondent for Reason:
In Pakistan, wheat yields rose from 4.6 million tons in 1965 to 8.4 million in 1970. In India, they rose from 12.3 million tons to 20 million. And the yields continue to increase. Last year [1999], India harvested a record 73.5 million tons of wheat, up 11.5 percent from 1998. Since Ehrlich's dire predictions in 1968, India's population has more than doubled, its wheat production has more than tripled, and its economy has grown nine-fold. Equally remarkable feats were happening in Mexico, where the country went from importing half its food to becoming a net exporter in a mere 20 years because of Borlaug's efforts.
Borlaug is the best proof of Simon's belief in humans as "the ultimate resource," as ingenuity leads to technological advances. And this theory has aged well, evidenced by the world poverty rate declining 80 percent since 1970 as things get better and better.
Norman Borlaug lived from March 25, 1914, until Sept. 12, 2009, and is estimated to have saved the lives of 1 billion people. That's news worth spreading.
Thanks for posting that. Very interesting.
The Malthusian crowd was as loud and dominant then as the global warming crowd is today. Their meme was that the new ice age was going to freeze us all to death if the growing population and shrinking food supplies didn't starve us to death first.
Naturally, their prescription was exactly the same as the prescription of their modern counterparts: give us total control and we'll save the planet.
Most of those jackwagons then, as now, did not even know the name of Norman Borlaug.
Malthusians, that’s a term I use to not know and looked it up afterwards, so if they were against the author’s heroes, the author’s heroes must be good guys. That’s a very intellectual term though I know many here probably know it.
This is one of my favorite videos of all time. WARNING: Harsh language. (The name of the show is Bullsh*t.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8
Here’s their wonderful, touching segment on Norman Borlaug. (And they eat the anti-GMO radicals alive.)
The Malthusian crowd was as loud and dominant then as the global warming crowd is today. Their meme was that the new ice age was going to freeze us all to death if the growing population and shrinking food supplies didn’t starve us to death first.
***********************
I remember it well.
Proud U of Minnesota alum!
A good reminder....the Alex folks will scream about GMOs though so be prepared
Borlaug was always a champion for employing genetically modified foods as the solution for hunger. He would call out the "Food Luddites" for their demonization of companies like Monsanto. For decades, Borlaug fought technological illiterates and chemicalphobes, as well as corrupt governments that would use food as a weapon. His accomplishments are so profound that it is absolutely stunning that so few people know of him. He is the most important American that you've never heard of.
My third-grader came home from school a few months ago with a homework assignment that was an article written about how Rachel Carson saved the Peregrine Falcon by banning DDT. It presented Carson as a hero, and as the mother of the environmental movement. I spent the evening with him explaining the truth about Carson and encouraging him to ask his teacher the next day when they would be learning about Norman Borlaug. He asked the next day, but the teacher had no idea who he was.
Our schools are celebrating a person who is directly responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, mostly children, who live in some of the poorest places on earth. They do this while totally ignoring an American who saved a billion people, mostly impoverished children in the third world, from starvation.
Thanks for posting this. Borlaug's life needs to be celebrated, even if it is only by conservatives, and Borlaug was an exceptional conservative.
A video about Norman Borlaug by Andy Andrews called “The Butterfly Effect” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo6fBAT8f-s
Must have missed that episode. I’ll have to watch this one at home.
BTTT
His legacy will be mixed.
Humans are simply UNABLE to handle his new strains of wheat, as we haven’t had enough time to adapt to it.
On the other hand, there is more than enough food for EVERYONE in the world to be fully fed, providing food can get to them (i.e., politics or warfare doesn’t stop the distribution).
Given the choice between starving or eating unhealthy food, the food option wins.
bump
That is some pedigree.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.