The farm boy from near Cresco whose wheat is credited with saving a billion people from starvation.
Norman Ernest Borlaug was born in 1914 on a farm near Cresco, in northeast Iowa, and grew up working the land during the Depression. He became an agronomist and plant pathologist who developed high-yield, disease-resistant wheat.
His work drove the “Green Revolution,” dramatically raising crop yields in Mexico, India, Pakistan, and beyond. For helping avert mass famine he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 — and is often credited with saving more lives than any person in history.
Borlaug is one of only a handful of people to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. A statue of him represents Iowa in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall.
The World Food Prize he created continues his mission from Des Moines, keeping Iowa at the center of the global fight against hunger.
The farm boy from near Cresco whose wheat is credited with saving a billion people from starvation.
Norman Borlaug was from Cresco, Iowa.
1914–2009.
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Portrait: Wikimedia Commons (public domain or freely licensed).