Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says Nobel Peace Prize-winning ag scientist Norman Borlaug leaves quite a legacy behind after his death over the weekend in Dallas Texas. Northey says Borlaug certainly changed the direction of agriculture, and millions of people would not be alive today had he not taken an aggressive scientific approach to find ways to increase grain production.
Northey credits the atmosphere that Borlaug grew up in around the Cresco area to his later success in life.
He says Borlaug’s agricultural roots, hard work ethic, and knowing how a person can make a difference in the world set an example for so many folks. Northey says Borlaug loved teaching not only students but world ag leaders how they could help shape the world.
He says one of Borlaug’s passions was to bring young people out of their hometown and get them around the country and the world and study the technology available in agriculture. Northey says Borlaug also challenged people to look into the future and see what would need to be done.
Northey says he challenged people to see what they need to do to make a difference in the world. Northey says Borlaug is like a lot of people who grow up as regular Iowa farm kids that grew up in small towns, “and the world would not notice the day they are born, but would certainly notice the day of their passing.” Borlaug was known as the father of the “green revolution”, winning the Nobel Prize for his role in averting global famine during the second half of the 20th Century.
Submitted by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City