Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate for fighting famine, dies
“More than any other single person of his age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world,” Nobel Peace Prize committee chairman Aase Lionaes said in presenting the award to Dr. Borlaug. “We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.”
His roots were in rural America and the Great Depression had a profound influence on his life.
Born March 25, 1914, on his grandparents’ farm in Iowa, he attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse. He played football and baseball, but credited wrestling for teaching him to persevere and give “105 percent.”
During the Depression, Dr. Borlaug saw many malnourished men. Their plight stayed with him, he told The Dallas Morning News in a 2007 interview.
“You’d see young people asking for a nickel to buy bread and older people sleeping in the park,” he said. “We were a pretty sick nation at that time. It made me tough. I was angry that this kind of condition could exist and persist in our own society.”