Norman Borlaug grew up on a farm near Cresco, Iowa. In 1944 he took a job in Mexico directing a wheat research program, and he spent years in the fields crossing and testing wheat varieties. In time he developed high-yielding, short-strawed, disease-resistant wheat. Then he worked to get the new wheat planted in Mexico, India, Pakistan, and many other countries, and the harvests were huge. His work became the heart of what people call the Green Revolution. In 1970 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He called his success only a temporary win in the war against hunger, and he kept training young scientists from around the world.
