Voa Agriculture Report - Congress Honors Norman Borlaug, Father of 'Green Revolution'

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is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

American agricultural Norman Borlaug has received the Congressional Gold Medal. The is the highest civilian honor given by Congress. Norman is often called "the man who saved a billion " and "the father of the Green Revolution."

His helped fight starvation in India and Pakistan in the sixties. He won the nineteen seventy Nobel Peace Prize.

President Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Harry Reid presented him with his latest honor last . The scientist is ninety-three years old. He still works an adviser at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement in Mexico.

In accepting the medal, he Congress and the administration to increase development assistance for . He said the world needs better and more technology deal with hunger. In his words:

"Hunger and and misery are very fertile soils into which to all kinds of ',isms,' including terrorism."

In the nineteen , Norman Borlaug and a team developed highly productive and wheat for farmers in Mexico. About twenty years later, of people in India and Pakistan were in danger grain shortages.

The improved wheat from Mexico also well in South Asia, combined with changes in growing . Norman Borlaug persuaded farmers to use more fertilizers and chemicals and to water their crops with irrigation systems. results were big production gains that many believe saved many as a billion lives.

President Bush noted that still affects much of the developing world. He said most fitting honor for Norman Borlaug is to lead second Green Revolution that feeds the world.

Yet support for new agricultural technologies has been criticized at over the years. Some researchers worry about the effects industrial methods of modern farming. Some have argued that resources are limited and not able to feed everyone.

researcher Paul Ehrlich, for example, wrote a nineteen sixty-eight called "The Population Bomb." He predicted that population growth cause widespread harm to the planet.

But now, people are saying there should be greater attention and for Norman Borlaug. A major theme of his work that people can deal with difficulties and that technology improve their lives.

And that's the VOA Special English Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder.

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