Norman Borlaug

Norman Ernest Borlaug (25 March 1914 - 12 September 2009) was an American agricultural scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his work breeding high-yield varieties of wheat. The introduction of these new crops into developing countries, with the associated increase in agricultural productivity and reduction in deaths from starvation, arguably make Borlaug responsible for saving an extraordinary number of human lives.^[1]

Further reading

Bailey, Ronald (2009) Norman Borlaug: the man who saved more human lives than any other individual in history.has died, Reason.Com, September 13.

Easterbrook, Gregg (1997) Forgotten benefactor of humanity, The Atlantic, January.

Related entries

global poverty

1. ^{^}

   Toby Ord estimates that Borlaug is responsible for saving "tens to hundreds of millions" of lives. See Ord, Toby (2020) The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 345.

Norman Ernest Borlaug (25 March 1914 - 12 September 2009) was an American agricultural scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his work breeding high-yield varieties of wheat. The introduction of these new crops into developing countries, with the associated increase in agricultural productivity and reduction in deaths from starvation, arguably make Borlaug responsible for saving more lives than any other individual in history.