A Great Man. The Greatest, in fact.

For those of you who have never heard of him, Norman Borlaug is one of very few people I truly look up to. He's my hero, and I didn't even learn about him until I was about 23. You see, Norman Borlaug, aside from having a much more elequantly penned biography at wikipedia, is one of the most influential people of all time, and most barely know he exists!

This Nobel Laurette humanitarian scientist saved over 1 billion people from starvation, and thus saved them from death. 1 billion. That's 9 zeros. In retrospect, there are roughly 6.6 billion people alive on earth now. Without the amazing breakthroughs Norman and his team made during the last 50 years, millions and millions of Asian and South American people would have died long ago.

You see, Norman works in genetic engineering. He modified the genes of several strains of rice to yield 6 times their normal production of food, and in climates much harsher than traditional rice marsh farms. He gave the ability to feed and propogate to many countries whose citizens would have died had it not been for his generosity.

Throughout his career, and he's 93 now and STILL working, (now that is a humanitarian) Dr Borlaug has traveled the world teaching agricultural techniques and helping communities feed themselves. It's hard for Americans to understand that in many parts of the world, food is the driving force of survival. It's not getting a new cell phone or missing dance practice, it's eating or dying. Without food, there is misery, death, sadness. For those of us who choose not to eat, that's one thing but everyone should have as much food as they could NEVER possibly eat. Make sense?

This rice is nutritional, easy to grow, and saved millions of lives. So why do left-wing GE-food hating assholes present biased arguments in front of the UN trying to convince starving countries NOT to accept the millions of tons of free rice seed the US government has offered? That was a mouthful, I know. But as I discuss Organic Food in the next post, it'll make more sense.

For more information on Dr Norman Borlaug, I really encourage you to check out the wikipedia entry on him, or better yet, the Penn & Teller's Bullshit episode: Eat This! It features a terrific segment on Norman and his hard work. It's on the 1st season DVD set available hurr.