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Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines9/13/2009 12:05:11 am PDT

Already posted in spin-offs but I can’t help but feel that this story deserves as much attention as possible:

Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution,” has died at age 95.

Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the “green revolution” who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95.

Borlaug died just before 11 p.m. Saturday at his home in Dallas from complications of cancer, said school spokeswoman Kathleen Phillips. Phillips said Borlaug’s granddaughter told her about his death. Borlaug was a distinguished professor at the university in College Station.

The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.

Thanks to the green revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period.

You may never have heard of him, but Norm Borlaug was one of the very greatest scientists and humanitarians in history. The claim of a billion lives saved is not an exaggeration at all. Never was a Nobel Prize more richly deserved.