Chuck Grassley: “I am calling upon Congress to honor Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the man of whom it is often said ``has saved more lives than…”

“I am calling upon Congress to honor Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the man of whom it is often said ``has saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived,'' with the Congressional Gold Medal. Dr. Borlaug is commonly known in the agricultural world and beyond as the father of the Green Revolution. His accomplishments in terms of bringing radical change to world agriculture and uplifting humanity are without parallel. Named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential minds of the 20th Century, Norman E. Borlaug is one of the great stories of our time. Norm, as he is known to all who work with him, was born in 1914 to Norwegian-American parents outside the town of Cresco in northeast Iowa near the Iowa/Minnesota border. His boyhood was spent on a Norman Rockwellesque farm and in a one-room schoolhouse. Eventually Norm found his way to the University of Minnesota where he became a star in Big Ten Wrestling and earned a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology. Following World War II, he spent 20 years working in the poorest areas of rural Mexico. It was there that Dr. Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in developing a strand of wheat that could exponentially increase yields while actively resisting disease. With the strong support of the governments involved, Dr. Borlaug's Green Revolution uplifted hundreds of thousands of the rural poor in Mexico and saved hundreds of millions from famine and outright starvation in India and Pakistan.…”