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RIP Norman Borlaug

Started by Zanza, September 13, 2009, 10:44:07 AM

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Zanza

September 13, 2009, 10:44:07 AM
QuoteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Norman Borlaug, the U.S. agricultural scientist who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for developing high-yielding crops to prevent famine in the developing world, has died at age 95, Texas A&M University said.

Borlaug, hailed as a central figure in the "green revolution" that made more food available for the world's hungry, died on Saturday night from cancer complications in Dallas, the university said in a statement.

The "green revolution" -- the development of crops such as wheat that delivered better yields than traditional strains -- is credited with helping avert massive famines that had been predicted in the developing world in the last half of the 20th century.

Borlaug served as a distinguished professor of international agriculture at Texas A&M University, located in College Station, Texas.

Experts have said his crusade to develop high-yielding, disease-resistant crops saved the lives of millions of people worldwide who otherwise may have been doomed to starvation. His efforts to develop new crop varieties helped alleviate food shortages in places such as India and Pakistan, helping make developing countries self-sufficient in food production.

He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2007, Borlaug also received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor of the United States.

"We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted," Borlaug said in a recent interview. "There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is commonplace, and famine appears all too often."

In 1944, he was appointed as geneticist and plant pathologist assigned the job of organizing and directing the Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in Mexico.

This joint undertaking of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation philanthropic organization focused upon scientific research in genetics, plant breeding and related fields. Within two decades, he succeeded in finding a high-yielding disease-resistant wheat.

The Iowa-born scientist then worked to put newly developed cereal strains into extensive production.

"It is the hope of the Borlaug family that his life be an example to all. We would like his life be a model for making a difference in the lives of others and to bring about efforts to end human misery for all mankind," his children said in a statement released by the university.

Habbaku

#1
September 13, 2009, 10:48:57 AM
 :(
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Viking

#2
September 13, 2009, 11:05:23 AM
RIP, food is good.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

Razgovory

#3
September 13, 2009, 05:50:20 PM
Well it's nice he stopped starvation in the 3rd world.  That was getting to be a problem.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

MadImmortalMan

#4
September 14, 2009, 11:42:04 AM
OMG FRANKENFOOD!!!!!1111


Fucking genius frankenfood. RIP Norman.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Fate

#5
September 14, 2009, 11:44:08 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on September 13, 2009, 05:50:20 PM
Well it's nice he stopped starvation in the 3rd world.  That was getting to be a problem.

The lack of starvation is more of a problem.

DisturbedPervert

#6
September 14, 2009, 12:33:23 PM
RIP   :(

I imagine he wouldn't have wanted any of his meat to go waste

DisturbedPervert

#7
September 15, 2009, 05:30:12 AM
Norman Borlaug = Greatest man who ever lived

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

Brazen

#8
September 15, 2009, 05:36:07 AM
RIP :(

A real hero of practical applied science.

Brazen

#9
September 15, 2009, 08:58:23 AM
Penn and Teller on Norman Borlaug in their Bullshit programme. Penn Jillette in particular is a huge proponent of Borlaug and his ideas. The language is probably NSFW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

DisturbedPervert

#10
September 15, 2009, 09:51:36 AM
Quote from: Brazen on September 15, 2009, 08:58:23 AM
Penn and Teller on Norman Borlaug in their Bullshit programme. Penn Jillette in particular is a huge proponent of Borlaug and his ideas. The language is probably NSFW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

:huh:
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