The “Father of the Green Revolution”, Dr. Norman Borlaug, received the Congressional Medal of Honor in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda today. Dr. Borlaug is the scientist credited with saving over a billion lives by creating high-yield and disease-resistant varieties of wheat and maize and introducing them in Mexico, Pakistan, and India in the 1960s, nearly doubling yields and increasing food security in those countries. Dr. Borlaug’s work has become known as the “Green Revolution”, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his contribution toward eradicating world hunger. Borlaug has since expanded the model into Africa and other parts of Asia.

The “Borlaug hypothesis”, which maintains that increasing the productivity of agriculture on the best farmland can help control deforestation by reducing the demand for new farmland has faced strong criticism over the years, particularly from the environmental movement, which takes issue with the introduction of genetically modified crops and non-organic fertilizers to the developing world. Borlaug’s response has been that environmentalists have not given sufficient weight to the crippling effects of hunger and the need to do something immediate to give people food.

Dr. Borlaug created the annual World Food Prize competition, and remains active in the field at the age of 93.

After the Congressional Medal of Honor award ceremony, Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin and Representatives Tom Latham, Leonard Boswell, Steve King, Bruce Braley, and Dave Loebsack held a reception to honor Dr. Borlaug. ONE was there and Dr. Borlaug was kind enough to let me take a picture with him.