The U.S. House voted today (Wednesday) to present gold to the father of the Green Revolution. Cresco native and agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug is a shoe-in now for the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest civilian award. The Senate had already passed the bill which now goes to President Bush, who’s expected to sign it.

The 93-year-old Borlaug already has one of the world’s top awards for his plant genetics research — he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. His work is credited with saving hundreds of millions of people globally from starvation. Borlaug continues to fight world hunger through the Des Moines-based World Food Prize and just a few weeks ago, he returned to Africa to do more research.