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Norman Borlaug feted

Norman Borlaug

WASHINGTON: President George Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal on Tuesday to agriculture scientist Norman Borlaug, whose work on high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of wheat is credited with starting the Green Revolution and alleviating starvation in India and Pakistan in the 1960s.

“The most fitting tribute we can offer this good man is to renew ourselves to his life’s work, and lead a second Green Revolution that feeds the world, and today we’ll make a pledge to do so,” Mr. Bush said.

Prof. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1970. In 1986 he founded the World Food Prize, an annual $250,000 award to people whose work increases the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

Prof. Borlaug, 93, said that hunger remains a problem with the rapid rise in the world’s population. “We need better and more technology, for hunger and poverty and misery are very fertile soils into which to plant all kinds of ‘isms,’ including terrorism.” — AP

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