Tom Harkin: “in a very beautiful ceremony in the Rotunda of the Capitol this morning, Dr. Norman Borlaug was presented with the…”

“in a very beautiful ceremony in the Rotunda of the Capitol this morning, Dr. Norman Borlaug was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, America's highest civilian award. Dr. Borlaug, of course, as we know, is the father of the Green Revolution and the winner of the Nobel Peace Price in 1970. In 1986 he established a World Food Prize, which is headquartered in my home State of Iowa, to recognize individuals who have improved the quality, quantity, and availability of food around the globe. Dr. Borlaug was born and raised in Iowa, earned his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics at the University of Minnesota in 1942. After graduation he went to work in Mexico where he developed high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of wheat, which dramatically increased food production. He then went on to introduce these and other high-yield wheat varieties in Pakistan and India, which had the effect of nearly doubling production in those countries, saving countless lives.”