Norman Borlaug began his career as a plant pathologist and became a force in international politics working as a consultant in agronomy (the science of raising crops) to the Mexican government. Through the work he performed in Mexico, he created a system of plant breeding and crop management, which was then exported to countries throughout the world to create what was dubbed the Green Revolution. Borlaug's unique combination of technical innovation, idealism, energy, and impatience with bureaucratic inefficiency took entire countries from starvation to self-sufficiency in the space of a few years. Some countries even became net exporters. Borlaug argued, however, that his innovations were no final answer to the world's population explosion, but that they only bought time to deal with this essential ecological problem. In 1970, Borlaug became the first agricultural scientist

Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914, grew up on a farm near Cresco, Iowa. With his...