17 July 2007
Food Researcher Awarded Congressional Gold Medal
Norman Borlaug credited with saving millions of lives
Washington -- Pioneering U.S. agricultural researcher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug received the Congressional Gold Medal for his lifetime of work tackling world hunger.
President Bush and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi presented Borlaug with the award -- the United States' highest civilian honor -- at a July 17 ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
Borlaug is credited with saving more than 1 billion people from famine and starvation around the world. His advancements in crop production helped him become known as the "father of the green revolution" in the 1960s and 1970s, called "the greatest period of food production in human history," according to the Iowa-based World Food Prize Federation.
"The Congressional Gold Medal is a remarkable tribute to Dr. Borlaug's legacy of feeding the world," said Kenneth Quinn, World Food Prize president.
Borlaug "has long understood that one of the greatest threats to global progress is the torment of human hunger," Bush said at the ceremony, adding the scientist has proved "that one human being can change the world."
The scientist, who received his Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, remains the only person to receive the honor for working in agriculture, Representative Tom Latham said in December 2006 after nominating Borlaug for the award.
In 1986 Borlaug founded the World Food Prize, which recognizes achievements to increase the quality, quantity and availability of food in the world. The annual award is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of food and agriculture."
Borlaug has served as director of the Wheat Research and Production Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico and currently serves as a distinguished professor of international agriculture at Texas A&M University and as president of the Sasakawa Africa Association. The research group promotes the use of modern agricultural technologies that increase the productivity and incomes of poor small farmers in Africa.
The first Congressional Gold Medal was awarded in 1776 to General George Washington, who later became the first President of the United States.
Borlaug joins civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Mother Teresa of India, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and World War II Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel as a recipient of three prestigious awards -- the Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Peace Prize.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
