Swanky Conservative

Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal yesterday. Borlaug is arguably the greatest living American and the man who millions of people literally owe their lives to, yet not a word of this was broadcast on any of the major media outlets.

Borlaug was a plant breeder who developed high-yield strains of wheat in the middle of the 20th century. In the 1960s Borlaug and his team traveled through India and Pakistan planting high-yield crops to counter the effects of drought. Within ten years India’s crop production increased by a factor of ten. Once people have enough food, everything else that makes up civilization follows: education, production, technology.

Why was this man ignored? Gregg Easterbrook sums it up pretty accurately:

Borlaug’s story is ignored because his is a story of righteousness — shunning wealth and comfort, this magnificent man lived nearly all his life in impoverished nations. If he’d blown something up, lied under oath or been caught offering money for fun, ABC, CBS and NBC would have crowded the Capitol Rotunda today with cameras, hoping to record an embarrassing gaffe. Because instead Borlaug devoted his life to serving the poor, he is considered Not News.

And the major media ratings slide continues…