| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Greatest Living American Ignored |
| 2007-07-18 |
| Gregg Easterbrook Today in Washington I was in the room as the greatest living American received a medal. George W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi and others were present. But will you ever hear this event occurred? To judge from tonight's major network evening newscasts, perhaps not. Cameras were allowed at the ceremony but I saw none from the major networks, though the international press was significantly represented. And will you recognize this great man's name when I say it? The greatest living American is Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, (back when Nobel Peace Prizes meant something) and joins Jimmy Carter (who shouldn't count) as the two living American-born laureates around whose necks this distinction as been placed. Do you know Borlaug's achievement? Would you recognize him if he sat on your lap? Norman Borlaug WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, yet is anonymous in the land of his birth. Born 1914 in Cresco, Iowa, Borlaug has saved more lives than anyone else who has ever lived. A plant breeder, in the 1940s he moved to Mexico to study how to adopt high-yield crops to feed impoverished nations. Through the 1940s and 1950s, Borlaug developed high-yield wheat strains, then patiently taught the new science of Green Revolution agriculture to poor farmers of Mexico and nations to its south. When famine struck India and Pakistan in the mid-1960s, Borlaug and a team of Mexican assistants raced to the Subcontinent and, often working within sight of artillery flashes from the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, sowed the first high-yield cereal crop in that region; in a decade, India's food production increased sevenfold, saving the Subcontinent from predicted Malthusian catastrophes. Borlaug moved on to working in South America. . . . Last fall, Borlaug crowned his magnificent career by persuading the Ford, Rockefeller and Bill & Melinda Gates foundations to begin a major push for high-yield farming in Africa, the one place the Green Revolution has not reached. Yet Borlaug is unknown in the United States, and if my unscientific survey of tonight's major newscasts is reliable, television tonight ignored his receipt of the Congressional Gold Medal, America's highest civilian award. I clicked around to ABC, CBS and NBC and heard no mention of Borlaug; no piece about him is posted on these networks' evening news websites; CBS Evening News did have time for video of a bicycle hitting a dog. (I am not making that up.) Will the major papers say anything about Borlaug tomorrow? Borlaug's story is ignored because his is a story of righteousness -- shunning wealth and comfort, this magnificent man lived nearly all his life in impoverished nations. If he'd blown something up, lied under oath or been caught offering money for fun, ABC, CBS and NBC would have crowded the Capitol Rotunda today with cameras, hoping to record an embarrassing gaffe. Because instead Borlaug devoted his life to serving the poor, he is considered Not News. All I can say after watching him today is that I hope Borlaug isn't serious about retiring, as there is much work to be done -- and I hope when I'm 93 years old I can speak without notes, as he did. Mr. Borlaug may not be the greatest living American, but he is unquestionably one of the greatest living Americans. Thank you, sir, for all you have done. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 It wasn't just what he did, it was the principle of what he did that changed everything. That is, once the Green Revolution began, it was like inventing a new branch of science. It was the beginning of concepts like the global food supply; sustainability; international agribusiness; seed banks; and genetic manipulation that continues today with GM foods. Much disaster was averted just by being aware of the situation. The USDA, especially, began looking at agriculture like a military strategy. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-07-18 20:54 |
| #1 So typical of the MSM. Save a billion people, get ignored. Say Bush = Hitler, get on the front page. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-07-18 11:41 |