Norman Borlaug

American agronomist

• Born: March 25, 1914; Saude, Iowa
• Died: September 12, 2009; Dallas, Texas

Twentieth-century American humanitarian and scientist, Borlaug received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his genetic modifications of wheat and other crops, which produced large yields in developing countries. His biotechnological work adapting plants to resist diseases and survive in varied climates enabled the Green Revolution, providing practical ways to ease hunger and malnutrition by consistently growing substantial quantities of nutritious food to feed expanding populations.

Primary field: Biology

Specialties: Botany; genetics

Early Life

Norman Ernest Borlaug (BOR-lawg) was born in Saude, Iowa, a Norwegian-American community near the city of Cresco. His parents, Henry O. and Clara Vaala Borlaug, were descendants of Norwegian immigrants who had fled famine in Norway. Borlaug and his family lived near his paternal grandparents, and he and his three younger sisters tended livestock, wheat, and corn on their family’s farm. From early on, Norman was interested in the technological and scientific applications necessary to improve agriculture.

Borlaug attended a rural, one-room school for eight grades before enrolling in Cresco High School. Fascinated by plants and soils, he took agricultural science courses, and after graduating in 1932, he moved to the city of St. Paul to attend the University of Minnesota. He received a bachelor of science degree in forestry in 1937, and on September 24, he married Margaret G. Gibson; they had three children.

When the US Forest Service delayed hiring Borlaug as a full-time employee, he enrolled in classes at his alma mater. He heard a lecture by Plant Pathology Department chair Elvin Charles Stakman, an expert on stem rust. Stakman urged Borlaug to pursue advanced degrees in plant pathology. Borlaug benefited from the university’s global reputation for wheat breeding research, gaining knowledge of agricultural endeavors worldwide. He worked as a research assistant and then as an instructor for the department. In 1941, Borlaug completed a master of science degree, and in 1942 he earned his PhD under the guidance of Jonas Jergon Christensen. Borlaug’s dissertation was published as a bulletin by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.

Life’s Work

Borlaug accepted a position as a microbiologist with DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, to oversee research of herbicides and pesticides. In 1944, the Rockefeller Foundation and Mexican ministry of agriculture created a research project to assist Mexican farmers with scientific agriculture. Jacob George Harrar, the project’s head agricultural scientist, requested that Borlaug join the group as a research scientist for the International Wheat Research and Production Program. Borlaug moved to Mexico and focused on transforming Mexican wheat from tall, fragile strains to dwarf, sturdy plant types. By 1960, he began serving as associate director for the Inter-American Food Crop Program, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, breeding dwarf wheat hybrids.

Starting in 1964, Borlaug conducted research for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) based in El Batán, Mexico. Borlaug directed the CIMMYT’s wheat research and production program until 1979. Using genetic engineering, Borlaug and his colleagues created cereal crops that matured quickly and produced large yields, were not labor-intensive to grow and harvest, and did not detrimentally affect the environment. They were interested in growing plants that provided nutrients, minerals, and vitamins crucial for good health.

During the 1960s, Borlaug represented the CIMMYT on a trip to Pakistan and India. He tried to share his ideas but initially confronted a resistant bureaucracy and culture that would not accept different agricultural methods. Borlaug’s ideas were eventually accepted, and he then worked on creating dwarf versions of other crops, including protein-rich maize. His work in Asia led to the production of ample food and often resulted in a surplus. Borlaug educated farmers in the Middle East and Eastern Europe in high-yield agriculture methods. He adapted plants to thrive in diverse climates and to resist foreign pests and diseases.

In 1970, Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in crop and food production in developing countries threatened by famine and malnutrition. Borlaug was also recognized for contributing to the success of the Green Revolution, a series of research, developmental, and technological programs between the 1940s and the late 1970s that increased agriculture production worldwide. In his acceptance speech, Borlaug noted that hunger and strife often coexist, and he believed that plentiful food encouraged worldwide peace.

Governments and colleges sought Borlaug’s expertise as a consultant and visiting lecturer. By 1984, he accepted a position at the Texas Agricultural & Mechanical University (Texas A&M) as an international agriculture professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Science. In 1986, he created the World Food Prize Foundation to reward and inspire innovative food-related projects aimed at halting world hunger. The foundation also sponsored youth institutes to educate students in agriculture, and it provided internships at agricultural research centers worldwide for students seeking better farming conditions internationally.

During the 1980s, Borlaug became president of the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), which aided sub-Saharan African populations affected by famine and drought. Nippon Foundation chair Ryoichi Sasakawa asked Borlaug to show farmers in Africa the scientific agricultural methods suitable for their lands, and the SAA was formed. In 1986, the SAA joined with the Carter Center’s Global 2000 Program (the center founded by former US president Jimmy Carter). As its first director, Borlaug was asked to establish demonstration plots, teach farmers practical techniques, and provide high-yield seeds and chemical fertilizers. Successful farmers reimbursed the project and also were encouraged to teach the techniques to other African agriculturists.

In 2000, Borlaug returned to Oslo, Norway, to speak at a commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of his Nobel Prize. Discussing the Green Revolution, Borlaug spoke about his continuing work to mitigate hunger, but he warned that famines could occur as populations exceeded available food yields.

Norman Borlaug University, a virtual institution, began offering agribusiness certificates to students in 2000. Classes featured agricultural topics, including food science and biotechnology. In 2007, the multinational agricultural corporation Monsanto gave $2.5 million to the university to establish the Borlaug-Monsanto Chair for Plant Breeding and International Crop Improvement at Texas A&M.

Borlaug’s critics have assailed his association with Monsanto as well as his unreserved advocacy of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In particular, his critics have claimed that Borlaug and other agronomists were so focused on high crop yields that they were dismissive of the negative social and ecological consequences of using GMOs. Borlaug spent his later years defending agricultural research and biotechnology as effective methods of feeding hungry people, and he wrote articles denouncing critics whom he asserted had unrealistic perceptions and expectations. Humanitarian groups and governments worldwide have honored Borlaug with awards, and universities have presented him with honorary degrees. In 1977, Borlaug received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2004 and a 2006 Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award issued by the US government. In 1982, the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology presented Borlaug its initial Distinguished Achievement Award in Food and Agricultural Science. The National Academy of Science awarded Borlaug its Public Welfare Medal.

Borlaug died at ninety-five in 2009. In his will, he bequeathed his scientific and personal papers to Iowa State University’s archives of American agriculture and land from his childhood farm to the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation for educational purposes.

Impact

Historians estimate that Borlaug’s work saved the lives of approximately one billion starving people during the 1960s. He was the first agricultural scientist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Researchers and agriculturists appropriated Borlaug’s methods to produce high-yield crops that appealed culturally to consumers in specific countries. In addition to mitigating malnutrition, Borlaug’s work allowed countries to become exporters of their agricultural surpluses. The US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service oversees the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program, which arranges the exchange of agriculturists and scientists to work in developing nations.

Bibliography

Dil, Anwar S., ed. Norman Borlaug on World Hunger. Foreword by Edwin J. Wellhausen. San Diego, CA: Intercultural Forum/Bookservice Intl., 1997. Print. Collection of Borlaug’s essays, speeches, and other writings prepared by a renowned Pakistani linguist to honor anniversaries of CIMMYT and the World Food Prize. Includes a foreword by a former CIMMYT director general.

Easterbrook, Gregg. “Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity.” Atlantic Monthly (Jan. 1997):75–82. Print. Provides an overview of Borlaug’s career, describing the impact of the Dust Bowl and Depression on his agricultural views, commitment to high-yield agriculture, and responses to criticisms of biotechnology.

Hesser, Leon F. The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger. Foreword by Jimmy Carter. Dallas, TX: Durban, 2006. Print. Laudatory biography penned by a US government agriculturist and friend who worked worldwide with Borlaug, who authorized this account.

Pence, Gregory E. “Norman Borlaug: He Fed a Billion People but You Don’t Know His Name.” Brave New Bioethics. Lanham, MD: Rowman, 2002. 159-62. Print. Discusses Borlaug’s monumental but little-known work feeding the world’s hungry.

---, ed. The Ethics of Food: A Reader for the Twenty-First Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman, 2002. Print. A collection of writings on the ethics of food, food production, agriculture, genetically modified foods, and other related topics, with the essay “Are We Going Mad?” by Norman Borlaug.

Shiva, Vandana. The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics. London: Zed, 2002. Print. Offers a critique of the Green Revolution’s impact in India and other developing countries.