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