Norman Bourlag, Grandfather of the Green Revolution, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Norman Borlaug, the “father of the Green Revolution”, lived in developing nations for the best part of five decades, teaching the techniques of high-yield agriculture. The form of agriculture he developed and taught has been credited with saving up to a billion deaths through starvation.
The most “unsung” of the American Nobel Laureates, yet known as a hero throughout the developing world, he received the Nobel Peace Prize primarily for his work in reversing the food shortages that haunted India and Pakistan in the 1960s.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Borlaug is responsible for the fact that global food production has expanded faster than the human population, averting the mass starvations that were widely predicted.
Dr. Bourlag continued to teach at Texas A & M University until shortly before he passed away in September 2009.