One of Iowa’s home-grown agricultural heroes is again on the verge of winning national recognition for his scientific work in crop research to help feed the world’s hungry. Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin plan to introduce a resolution calling for Cresco native Norman Borlaug to receive one of America’s highest honors, the Congressional Gold Medal. Grassley says Borlaug deserves it.
Grassley says Borlaug “helped save hundreds of millions of people from famine and starvation” with his scientific research, saving more than a billion people overall. In 1970, Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize, the only person working in agriculture to be so honored. That was for his work in developing a wheat strain to help starving masses in Mexico. Borlaug, who will turn 92 in March, is known as the Father of the Green Revolution.
Grassley says Borlaug is recognized as one of the leading Americans of our age. Grassley says Borlaug has “devoted his life to helping feed the hungry so I think it’s only fitting for the man who has saved more lives than any other person be presented with the highest honor that Congress can bestow.”
More at WorldFoodPrize.org.