The secret is out: the world will need more food scientists in the near future if we have a hope of preventing a massive food crisis, the likes of which no one has ever seen. You already know Norman Borlaug made huge advancements in agriculture in the 1960s and 70s with his disease-resistant wheat, however you may not be familiar with the names of other scientists who have made significant contributions to the food and agriculture industries. Here are three individuals who may not have gained the recognition of Borlaug, bur deserve to be known for their accomplishments. We can only hope there are many more people like them waiting in the wings for their turn to shine.

Henry Beachell
If Borlaug was the king of the wheat world, than Beachell could be called the Sultan of Rice (wouldn’t that be a cool title?). During the time Borlaug was focusing his efforts to rescue India and Pakistan from severe wheat shortages, Beachell bred “miracle” rice, an Indonesian variety formally known as IR8. After creating this strain of the crop, rice production improved by 100 per cent in Indonesia thanks to Beachell’s work, and helped feed millions of starving Asian people.

So how exactly did he do it? By breeding a Taiwanese rice with a pest-resistant Indonesian rice to create a variety that would use applied fertilizer more efficiently and increase yields.

Prior to developing the miracle rice, Beachell was instrumental in the development of nine different rice varieties with higher yields, which accounted for 85 per cent of rice grown in the U.S. for more than a decade.

In 1996, Beachell was awarded the World Food Prize for his success in the rice industry. He was so successful in fact, that the American Society of Agronomy described him as the father of the Green Revolution in regards to rice.

Dr. Pedro Sanchez
Poor soil quality is a significant reason some of the world’s most impoverished nations cannot successfully grow food. Dr. Pedro Sanchez is renowned for vastly improving soil quality by adding playing native rock phosphate to soil, while also planting trees and bushes near crops. The result? Healthier soil thanks to the nitrogen the trees and plants pulled from the air and injected back into the soil.

That explanation may be simplifying it just a bit. The fact is, Sanchez’s technique has resulted in a 400 per cent yield increase in over 20 countries, used successfully by hundreds of thousands of farmers. As added bonuses, this initiative also yields fruit and medicinal ingredients, and also helps capture atmospheric carbon, a major culprit of global warming.

Not only have Sanchez’s soil improvement ambitions been high, but so have his environmental ones. Under Sanchez’s direction, the International Center for Research in Agroforestry, where he worked until 2001, vowed to clean up their environmental act and plant 5.5 billion trees, as well as remove more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide from the air.

Sanchez’s successes have been recognized with the World Food Prize in 2002, the title of “Hero of Humanity” by Heifer International’s World Ark publication, as well as honorary doctorate degrees from Guelph University and the Catholic University in Belgium.

Dr. Gebisa Ejeta
Dr. Gebisa Ejeta won last year’s World Food Prize thanks to his significant breakthrough in developing hybrid sorghum varieties for Africa, as well as his conquest over Striga, a crop-killer responsible for destroying maize, rice, sugarcane and sorghum.

You may not be as familiar with sorghum as you are with crops such as what and rice. Don’t be fooled though: just because it isn’t as common doesn’t negate its value. Sorghum is used in breads and cereals, and Ejeta’s work with it has made it a viable player in Sudan and Niger.

His variety, known as Hageen Dura-1, had 50 to 100 per cent higher yields than traditional sorghum and gave Sudanese farmers a valuable tool to provide their families with food – and a future. Millions of citizens have already been the first-hand benefactors of Ejeta’s developments. Meanwhile, the NAD-1 variety has seen yields increases of four to five times the national average in Niger.

Ejeta also figured out how to alter the genetics of a plant to make it less susceptible to Striga, a disease that affected more than 100 million people in Africa. The end result was a Striga-resistant sorghum and an ongoing passion to improve economic development in the nation.

» Wikipedia

While you may recognize many popular cereal names from the U.S. market - Cheerios, Mini-Wheats and Froot Loops all come to mind - if you visit other parts of the world, you may peruse grocery store shelves and see some names you don't recognize. Gasp! You mean, you can find cereals that actually aren't produced for North American customers? Believe it.

The list below provides a tiny sampling of the foreign breakfast cereals you probably haven't heard of if you haven't spent time in supermarkets around the world.

Force
Originally produced in the U.S. in 1901, Force cereal was the first wheat flake cereal to sell successfully. It started as a creation of Force Food Company and became recognizable thanks to the signature cartoon character, Sunny Jim. In fact it was the character and the surrounding advertising campaigns that made the cereal a success.

The original owner of the company that introduced Force eventually lost the business, and ownership of the brand changed several times as a result. In 1910, Force was one of several American cereals to be imported into Britain, where it became hugely successful, peaking in 1930 with sales of 12.5 million boxes. While the cereal was re-introduced to the U.S. market in 1932, it was not successful. Force is now manufactured in the UK for domestic sale and belongs to a subsidiary of the Nestle company. There are no longer advertising campaigns run for the cereal.

Golden Nuggets
While Golden Nuggets was a popular cereal on U.S. store shelves in the 1970s, the Nestle-owned product is now available only in the UK.

The original slogan for the Golden Nuggets advertising campaign was, "They Taste Yeee Haa!!"

Koko Krunch
Koko Krunch is a chocolaty cereal marketed and sold in Asia. It's especially popular among children in Indonesia and is manufactured in the Philippines.

The "Koko" part of the name begins with "ko" (as opposed to "co") because the cartoon character mascot for the cereal is a koala bear.

Koko Krunch is made from a combination of corn, wheat and oats, and is said to be a good source of carbohydrates and protein.

Uncle Toby's VitaBrits
Uncle Toby is a popular guy in Australia - or at least his brand of cereal is anyway. These VitaBrits contain 99 per cent whole grains and are therefore high in fiber. They are also low fat and contain no added sugar. For those who enjoy their cereal as natural as possible, the VitaBrits are processed as minimally as possible.

If VitaBrits don't sound appealing, you can always try another one of Uncle Toby's offerings, including Vita Weeties, Bran Plus, oats or even muesli bars.

» Wikipedia

It was a discussion about wheat rust that initially fascinated Norman Borlaug and set him on the path of plant pathology, which ended up saving millions of lives. Borlaug's contributions to the development of disease-resistant wheat secured the crop's supply and even had it thriving in Mexico, Pakistan and India beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 70s. A couple of weeks ago we asked who the next Norman Borlaug would be and it seems the answer to that question would certainly be helpful now.

Wheat rust isn't exactly a new problem (obviously since it piqued Borlaug's interest during his young adult days), however it's still a serious problem, as evidenced by the Ug99 fungus, which scientists estimate could destroy more than 80 per cent of the world's wheat crops. That's a pretty scary prediction, especially when food shortages and starvation are huge problems now and predicted to become much, much worse in the future. The problem has started in eastern Africa, but already spread as far as Iran and potentially ready to attack crops in northern India and Pakistan. And in the event you're thinking that that's too far away for you to have to worry about, consider that agriculture experts figure it's only a matter of time until the wind will bring the disease to Russia, China and North America.

When swine flu began to appear in multiple countries, it was all anyone could talk and worry about. It's probably safe to assume Ug99 won't receive the same attention, but the implications of it are just as scary. It's been coined a "time bomb" by industry experts and is the top threat to wheat, the world's most widely grown crop.

Scientists are working against a pretty intimidating deadline: develop wheat varieties that are immune to the fungus or watch famine spread across poor, developing countries. The process of doing so can take over a decade and by then, the disease may already have made its way west and wreaked havoc on crops. Then again, in the 1960s, nobody thought India had a prayer of surviving famine (scientists predicted millions of people would starve to death) due to lack of wheat, yet the country managed to double yields of the crop in a matter of five years thanks to Borlaug's work.

Could the 94 year old come out of retirement and do it again or is there another Borlaug waiting in the wings, ready to solve this potential crisis? There doesn't seem to be a lot of time to find out, so let's hope someone steps into his shoes soon.

» Los Angeles Times

Norman Borlaug didn't become a Nobel Peace Prize winner overnight. The documentary below was created by students at Redmond Jr. High School in Redmond, Washington as part of the 2009 Washington State National History Day competition and ended up winning first place.

While the documentary provides a summary of Borlaug's life and achievements, it also explains that the seeds of his agricultural success were planted early (ha, seeds, planted - get it?). Agriculture was in Borlaug's blood, as he grew up on a farm. However rather than taking over the family farming business, Borlaug was encouraged by his grandfather to pursue higher education. He attended the University of Minnesota and was later accepted in the institution's College of Agriculture. There he met Alvin C. Stackman, the head of the plant pathology department, whose discussion of wheat rust disease fascinated Borlaug. It was Stackman who encouraged Borlaug to pursue the field of plant pathology. This, as well as a job with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public work relief program for unemployed men, had a huge influence on Borlaug. He said of the program, ""I saw how food changed them...All of this left scars on me."

The video also outlines Borlaug's agronomical innovations:

1. High Volume Crossbreeding - Developing rust-resistant wheat by crossbreeding thousands of different lines, rather than dozens which was the typical approach by plant breeders.

2. Shuttle Breeding - Borlaug bred wheat in the central highlands of Mexico and then immediately took the seeds north. This was to take advantage of Mexico's two growing seeds, allowing more crops to be cultivated each year.

3. Changing the wheat's architecture - By changing the structure of the wheat by cross-breeding a Japanese dwarf wheat with high-yielding American wheat, combined with Borlaug's disease-resistant wheat cultivars. The result: six times higher wheat yield in Mexico than a decade earlier.

In other words, the young people at Redmond Jr. High School have done their research and show how Borlaug's childhood and young adult years would eventually lead to his status as one of the most influential humans who has ever lived. Check out the 10-minute documentary below to learn more about Borlaug and his life story.

» YouTube

If you've been enjoying our closer examination of The Cereal Aisle over the past week, don't despair because we're going to continue to examine more of it this week. However here are some highlights of what we've discussed so far:

☆ Wheat and oats and rice, oh my! We took a closer look at the common cereal grains used in the production of - you guessed it - cereal.

☆ Why buy pre-packaged cereal if you can make your own healthy version at home?

☆ If you've ever wondered what a staple crop is, we provide the easy answer.

☆ Though you may love your Frosted Flakes, different parts of the world have their very own favorites, many of which you've probably never even heard of.

» Ecollo (The Cereal Aisle)

Some of the most recognizable names in breakfast cereal use wheat as a base, and it's no wonder: the grain has been around for a long time and is one of the most widely grown crops in the world. However, when you pour that bowl of puffed wheat in the morning, id it ever occur to you that there are so many more varieties of wheat in existence?

History of wheat
While we learned yesterday that oats were only discovered about 3,000 years ago, wheat has been around much longer. It was one of the first plants ever to be cultivated and dates back approximately 11,000 years ago to the Middle East. Because of the early discovery of wheat, it became one of the crops that changed lives, as people began to realize they could rely upon themselves to produce food as opposed to searching for pre-existing food. Not only did wheat provide a means for people to feed themselves, it also determined where they settled since staying put and farming meant a steady, consistent food supply.

About seven thousand years after wheat was first discovered, the grain could be found in Asia, Europe and North Africa, and new species were constantly being developed as farmers figured out how to choose their best kernels and use them for the next planting season. 

Wheat Facts
Wheat is typically planted two times a year, in the spring and winter, both of which serves as identifying the classification of the wheat. In the spring, wheat is planted as soon as temperatures allow for it, while in the fall, wheat is typically planted in September or early October. The harvesting of fall wheat usually occurs the following, May and the harvesting of spring wheat usually happens in late July, and is completed by late August.

Wheat is one of the most common crops in the U.S., and is grown in 42 states. Kansas and North Dakota are the country's biggest wheat producers. About half of the wheat produced in the U.S. is used domestically.

Additionally, one bushel of wheat weighs approximately 60 pounds, contains about one million individual kernels, accounts for about 42 pounds of white flour and 60 pounds of whole-wheat flour, and can be used to make approximately 42 loaves of white bread or 90 loaves of whole-wheat bread.

The six main types of wheat include Hard Red Spring, Hard Red Winter, Soft Red Winter, Hard White, Soft White and Durum.

Wheat in cereal
You can enjoy wheat in either hot or cold cereal. Popular cold varieties include Kellogg's Mini-Wheats, Shredded Wheat by Post and General Mills' Wheaties. If something warm in the morning is more your style, Cream of Wheat can be enjoyed by babies, children and adults alike.

Back in 2000, it was speculated that whole-wheat and wheat-bran breakfast cereals could be valuable sources of dietary antioxidants. Indeed, choose a whole-wheat cereal can provide much needed fiber, which will keep you going for longer than that box of sugar-coated O's sitting in your cupboard.

» ThinkQuest