A review of The Man Who Fed the World, by Leon Hesser (Durban House, 2006).
The story of Norman Borlaug, the plant breeder known as the “Father of the Green Revolution,” offers the same kind of nobility and idealism shown by Jimmy Stewart in the title role of the classic movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Borlaug’s life has been one of extraordinary paradoxes: a child of the Iowa prairie during the Great Depression who attended a one-room school, aspired to become a high school science teacher, flunked the university entrance exam—but went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for averting malnutrition, famine, and the death of millions.
