SEX, BOMBS & BURGERS

I was a little saddened yesterday to learn of the passing of Norman Borlaug. If you don't know who Borlaug is, you might want to do a little reading on him because he is possibly the greatest humanitarian who ever lived (that's what Forbes called him in their obituary, and I agree).

Borlaug was an American scientist recruited to help solve the issue of hunger in Mexico in the forties. At the time, Mexico was experiencing major food shortages and importing more than half the wheat it needed. Borlaug introduced a new hybrid kind of wheat that resisted the "rust" plant disease commonly found in the country. Along with new pesticides and irrigation techniques, Mexico used the new "dwarf" wheat to first become self-sufficient in food, then to become a net exporter of wheat. Borlaug's agricultural techniques are considered a cornerstone of the so-called Mexican Miracle, which saw the country post impressive economic growth rates until the 1970s.

Borlaug's techniques were then exported to India and Pakistan, and then to the Philippines, where they had the same effect. The "Green Revolution," as his techniques were nicknamed since they produced fields of green crops, helped turn those countries into net exporters of food, thus elevating them out of abject poverty.

Over his lifetime, Borlaug had honour upon honour heaped upon him, including the Nobel Peace Prize. It's estimated that he saved at least 240 million lives (some say it was up to a billion) - a number that no other humanitarian can even come close to.

He was also a big supporter of food technology, including genetically modified seeds. He even appeared in videos from the big evil Monsanto, defending the company's pushing of GMO technology:



I tried to track Borlaug down months ago for an interview for my book, unsuccessfully. I didn't know he was in poor health, although at the age of 95, he lived longer than most of us can hope to. Through the course of reading his writings, speeches and opinions, I came to be a big believer in how food technology can help fight poverty and the conditions that cause war. He had his share of critics, but I think he answered them nicely in a 1997 interview:

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 50 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.