Congress Honors Norman Borlaug, Father of 'Green Revolution' (2/2)

In the 1940s, Norman Borlaug and a team developed highly productive and disease-resistant wheat for farmers in Mexico. About twenty years later, millions of people in India and Pakistan were in danger from grain shortages.

The improved wheat from Mexico also grew well in South Asia, combined with changes in growing methods. Norman Borlaug persuaded farmers to use more fertilizers and pesticide chemicals and to water their crops with irrigation systems. The results were big production gains that many believe saved as many as a billion lives.

President Bush noted that hunger still affects much of the developing world. He said the most fitting honor for Norman Borlaug is to lead a second Green Revolution that feeds the world. Yet his support for new agricultural technologies has been criticized at times over the years. Some researchers worry about the effects of industrial methods of modern farming. Some have argued that Earth's resources are limited and not able to feed everyone.

Population researcher Paul Ehrlich, for example, wrote a nineteen sixty-eight book called "The Population Bomb." He predicted that population growth would cause widespread harm to the planet.