A True Hero of our time

Preview: Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug to Speak at NC State. Borlaug's research, dedication and drive have done more to save literally billions from starvation. His work resulted in the Nobel Peace prize in 1970. I found this interview in Reason that I find very enlightening. Borlaug discusses his work and his detractors. Environmentalists are against much of his work because feeding people through intensive agriculture just might harm the environment. Of the doomsday scenarios (Erlich, Rifkin, et al) he says: "As a matter of fact, I think this [lack of perspective] is true of our whole food situation. Our elites live in big cities and are far removed from the fields. Whether it's Brown or Ehrlich or the head of the Sierra Club or the head of Greenpeace, they've never been hungry." His work has proven the doomsayers wrong, time and again. Erlich has been predicting doom for 35 years. It hasn't happened, yet he is still credible in the media and the Enviro's. Why, nobody goes back and remembers what he said. Borlaug says that the environmentalists are elitists, well-funded by foundation money. They want to save, the planet, no matter how many die from their efforts.

Borlaug is pro-DDT in places where malaria is prevalent. He says: " I testified about the value of DDT for malaria control, especially throughout Africa and in many parts of Asia. The point I made in my testimony as a witness for the USDA was that if you ban DDT here in the U.S., where you don't have these problems, then OK, you've got other insecticides for agriculture, but when you ban it here and then exert pressures on heads of government in Africa and Asia, that's another matter. They've got serious human and animal diseases, and DDT is important. Of course, they did ban DDT, and the danger is that they will do the same thing with biotech now." Result: millions die from a disease that could be prevented.

Intensive agriculture, done properly, with the best, most resistant strains available, use less land and produce more food. In the end, it is less destructive to the environment than the way some are doing it now and some would have us continue. Who has the credibility: A man whose work has fed billions or those who sit in the big cities, have never been hungry and wring their hands to an adoring media?

Too bad I can't get to Raleigh, it would be a great speech to hear.