Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal, one of only seven people to have received all three awards. Borlaug received his B.S. in forestry in 1937 and PhD in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He took up an agricultural research position with CIMMYT in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. Borlaug is often called "the father of the Green Revolution", and is credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation. According to Jan Douglas, executive assistant to the president of the World Food Prize Foundation, the source of this number is Gregg Easterbrook's 1997 article "Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity." The article states that the "form of agriculture that Borlaug preaches may have prevented a billion deaths". Dennis T. Avery also estimated that the number of lives saved by Borlaug's efforts to be one billion. In 2009, Josette Sheeran, then the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, stated that Borlaug "saved more lives than any man in human history". He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply. Later in his life, he helped apply these methods of increasing food production in Asia and Africa. He was also an accomplished wrestler in college and a pioneer of wrestling in the United States, being inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his contributions.
Early life, education, and family
Borlaug was the great-grandchild of Norwegian immigrants to the United States. Ole Olson Dybevig and Solveig Thomasdatter Rinde, of Feios, a small village in Vik kommune, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, emigrated to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1854. The family eventually moved to the small Norwegian-American community of Saude, near Cresco, Iowa. There, they were members of the Saude Lutheran Church, where Norman was baptized and confirmed. Borlaug was the first of four children born to Henry Oliver (1889–1971) and Clara (Vaala) Borlaug (1888–1972) on his grandparents' farm in Saude in 1914. His three sisters were Palma Lillian (Behrens; 1916–2004), Charlotte (Culbert; 1919–2012), and Helen (b. d. 1921). From age seven to nineteen, he worked on the 106-acre (43 ha) family farm west of Protivin, fishing, hunting, and raising corn, oats, timothy-grass, cattle, pigs, and chickens. He attended the one-teacher, one-room New Oregon #8 rural school in Howard County through eighth grade. Today, the school building, built in 1865, is owned by the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation as part of "Project Borlaug Legacy". At Cresco High School, Borlaug was a member of the football, baseball and wrestling teams; his wrestling coach, Dave Barthelma, continually encouraged him to "give 105%". Borlaug attributed his decision to leave the farm and pursue further education to his grandfather's urgent encouragement to learn: Nels Olson Borlaug (1859–1935) once told him, "You're wiser to fill your head now if you want to fill your belly later on." When Borlaug applied for admission to the University of Minnesota in 1933, he failed its entrance exam. He was accepted at the school's newly created two-year General College. After two quarters, he transferred to the College of Agriculture's forestry program. As a member of the University of Minnesota men's wrestling team, Borlaug reached the Big Ten semifinals. He promoted the sport to Minnesota high schools in exhibition matches all around the state:
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