Saturday, February 5, 2011

Norman Borlaug on Freakonomics Podcast

"FLOROS: Lack of vitamins for example -- lack of nutrients -- were causing a lot of different diseases back then that we have pretty much eliminated today.  And the biggest reason that we have eliminated them is the fact that we have plenty of food available, the right kind of food available year -- round all over the country -- and in most parts of the world actually, not just in this country.


DUBNER: That sounds borderline miraculous -- all that food, available almost anytime, almost anywhere. So how’d it happen? Well, people like Norman Borlaug made it happen. During the 1960s, Asia was on the verge of a mass famine. Borlaug, a plant chemist, developed new and heartier strains of wheat that drastically increased crop yield -- and he’s credited with saving a billion lives, more than anyone in history. In 1970, Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize. Years later, he established the World Food Prize, a sort of Nobel for food science. "

- Listen to podcast 
here

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