Psssst...without hitting the jump or performing a Google search, who can tell me who Norman Borlaug is?

Anyone? Congratulations, if you know, you're probably in the vast minority. He's never starred in a Hollywood blockbuster, recorded an album or been on a reality show. What he has done won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal (only one of five people in history to be awarded all three honors). Borlaug is also known as the father of the Green Revolution, an agricultural phenomenon that started in 1945 and saved millions from starvation. So in other words, even though Norman Borlaug has never appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 list, he's an American who should at least be on your radar.

Less than a decade after Borlaug received his Bachelor of Science in Forestry in 1937, and Ph.D in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942, he was working in Mexico and developing new breeds of high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat. The improvements in wheat production in Mexico in the 1940's and 1950's, and eventually in Asia and Latin America, began the period that was eventually termed the Green Revolution. He was so successful in fact, that by 1963, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat, while India and Pakistan nearly doubled their wheat yields between 1965 and 1970 when Borlaug applied his breeding methods in those areas.

His major success India was taking the country from a massive famine in the early to mid-1960's, to being completely self-sufficient in the production of all cereals by 1974, a feat that was never predicted by scientists who predicted millions of people in India would starve to death in the 1970's and 80's. 

In 1964, Borlaug was appointed the director of the International Wheat Improvement Program, which was part of a new (at the time) initiative known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (try fitting that on a business card!). By 1970, he was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, recognizing his contribution to world peace by increasing the food supply. In 1986, he created the World Food Prize to honor those who make significant developments and improvements to the global food supply, and in 2006, President George Bush signed a bill that states, "Dr. Borlaug has saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived, and likely has saved more lives in the Islamic world than any other human being in history."

That's certainly more impressive than any accomplishment Paris Hilton or Britney Spears can claim. It almost makes you feel a tad bit guilty over not knowing the name Norman Borlaug before today. Don't feel too bad though because now you're in the know. And while Borlaug's achievements have taken place over several decades, maybe even since before you were born, he's still advocating for innovative agricultural techniques as a means of saving a starving world.

Now as we face another huge food crisis, it remains to be seen: who will be the next Norman Borlaug?

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