A Profile of Norman Borlaug

In the latter half of the 20^th century, the international scientific community brought about incredible advances in the field of agronomy. The Green Movement, made up of farmers, researchers, scientists, humanitarians, and activists from around the world, developed new agricultural techniques that have forever changed food production.

At the heart of this movement was Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, a man who enabled high-yield crops on a massive scale, and dealt a massive blow to world hunger.

Borlaug was born on March 25^th, 1914, in the small, Norweigian-American community of Cresco, Iowa. He assisted his parents in managing the family farm in his youth, leaving at age 19 to pursue higher education.

In 1933, Borlaug was accepted to the University of Minnesota—thanks in large part to his athleticism—where he took part in the school’s varsity wrestling team while studying forestry in the College of Agriculture.

At age 23, Borlaug graduated with a BS in Forestry, and quickly found work with the United States Forest Service.

After hearing a speech on plant disease by Elvin Stakman, professor of plant pathology for the University of Minnesota, Borlaug was inspired to return to the university for further study.

In 1942, he received his Ph. D. in plant pathology and genetics, and began work for E.I. Dupont de Nemours, where he conducted wartime research for the United States military. During this time, Borlaug assisted in the development of waterproof adhesives, insulation for small electronics, canteen disinfectants, and, notably, wartime pesticides and fertilizers.

When World War II ended, Borlaug became head of the Cooperative Wheat Research and Development Program, an international effort by the Mexican Office of Special Studies to hasten the nation’s agricultural development.

The country’s most common strains of wheat were generally tall, thin, and susceptible to disease. Borlaug was tasked with creating new varieties which would maximize growth rates, grain size, and durability.

To achieve this as quickly as possible, Borlaug planned to breed his wheat through summer and winter, which required his team to plant in two very distant regions. Borlaug’s superior, George Harrar, adamantly opposed this plan, pointing to increased costs and a now-disproven agronomical theory, which would require the seeds harvested in summer to “rest” through the winter in order to maximize growth.

Borlaug, with assistance from higher-level project leads, won the battle, and began supplementing his yearly harvest with winter crops in the Sonoran Desert. This allowed him to quickly breed out the Mexican wheat’s susceptibility to fungus, and unexpectedly, developed a new trait that allowed the wheat to adapt to very different regions.

To remedy the wheat’s low seed yield, he made heavy use of nitrogen fertilizer. This resulted in larger seed heads, but the tall, thin stalks were too weak to support them. By obtaining and crossbreeding with a Japanese strain, Norin 10, he was able to generate short, strong stalks capable of supporting the seeds’ weight.

Borlaug’s extensive efforts eventually led to the development of two dwarfed, highly-adaptable, disease-resistant breeds: Pitic 62 and Penjamo 62.

By 1963, these strains accounted for 95 percent of Mexico’s wheat output, which, since 1944, when Borlaug had begun his work, had increased sixfold.

In 1965, Indians were facing a major crisis. Due to post-WWII advances in medical technology, death rates had begun falling worldwide. Offsetting its historically high death rates, India faced a major population boom which couldn’t be sustained by the country’s weak agricultural system.

The Indian government reached out to Borlaug, who offered a massive shipment of his Mexican wheat seeds. Though he initially faced a degree of cultural resistance, his seeds gained popularity, and by 1968, farmers were producing record yields.

In 1970, Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the science of agronomy, and for his massive humanitarian achievements in Mexico and South Asia.

Nine years later, Borlaug retired from his position with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, but continued to serve the field through research, education, and consultation. In 2009, at age 95, Borlaug died of lymphoma.

Despite his achievements, both scientific and humanitarian, he remains a controversial figure within the environmental community. Many resent his contributions to the Green Movement, which set the stage for industrial agriculture to dominate the market and diminish the role of subsistence farming throughout the world. Others criticize him for his use and promotion of nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides.

In life, Borlaug addressed these criticisms, “Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.”

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Tierney, John. "Greens and Hunger." NYTimes.com. The New York Times, 19 May 2008. Web. 17 June 2011. .