Norman Borlaug
The home of the World Food Prize in Des Moines is open extended hours Saturday in hopes people from around the country in town the for the college wrestling tournament will stop in.
World Food Prize president, Kenneth Quinn, says Cresco native and 1970 Noebel Peace Prize winner, Norman Borlaug, had the idea for the World Food Prize. But Borlaug was a wrestler before he became a famous scientist.
“I want everybody who is here for the N-C-two-A championships to know that Dr. Norman E. Borlaug is the NCAA wrestler who saved a billion lives,” Quinn say. Borlaug wrestled at the University of Minnesota and earned degrees in forestry, and later a doctorate in plant pathology.
Borlaug won the Nobel Peace prize for developing a strain of wheat that saved so many from starvation. “I would argue, that of all the athletes who have every played a collegiate sport — at all levels ever since the first sporting event was held — Dr. Borlaug is probably the person who has the greatest achievement in his life,” Quinn says.
The Hall of Laureates which is home to the World Food Prize, will be open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday for tours of the building.