The first ever “Norman Borlaug World Food Prize Day” was celebrated in a ceremony today in the rotunda of the state capitol. The day created by the Iowa Legislature, recognizes the Cresco native who won the Nobel Prize in 1970 after introducing a new strain of wheat that help starving people in Mexico. Borlaug’s Nobel award was in the Peace category. He says the World Food Prize — created in 1986 — is important, as there’s no category for Agriculture in the Nobel Awards. He says that’s because the wasn’t any food crisis when Nobel wrote his will in 1895 setting up the prizes. Borlaug says his repeated attempts to get the Nobel Committee to add an agricultural category have failed. He says it’s appropriate then, that the World Food Prize is headquartered in Iowa. Borlaug credits other Iowans such as Herbert Hoover and Henry Wallace for inspiring him and leading the way to his success. He says his ten fingers and mind are not enough to do much about world problems alone. He says the teamwork of all scientists in cooperation are what led to the break throughs.Borlaug says Wallace would be pleased to see what’s taking place today in food research. He says Wallace used to kid him about working with wheat and not corn, and now he says he is working with corn.The Borlaug day is part of a month-long schedule of events celebrating agriculture, will be annually recognized in the state.
