The Most Important Person You’ve Never Heard Of

I hate it, hate it, hate it, when I don't hear this kind of news from our Media and instead we get bombarded by news about Hollywood's drunk, confused, and lost celebrities.

This news is about the last Congressional Gold Medal receiver - the highest civilian honor given by Congress ( The first one was awarded to George Washington in 1776). There has been only 139 times since. Last week, it was Norman Borlaug's turn, 93 years old, and I have never heard about him at all! Have you? Read about him and you will be inspired, moved and touched!

I happen to read about it in the American Magazine (its a great new magazine):

"He wasn’t broadly famous, so the well deserved award was a quiet event by modern standards. But it’s still a shame that the award ceremony didn’t get more publicity, because Norman Borlaug has saved more lives than any person currently living. Indeed, he may have saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived."

Apparently, he helped poor by not giving them money but by serving them with developing technology. His most famous project was the "wheat project" in Mexico. He is an agricultural scientist who started the Green revolution 3 decades ago and the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1970!

"In the mid-'60s, doomsayers predicted that, because of war and overpopulation, millions of people in India and Pakistan would die of starvation – and nothing could be done to prevent it. Dr. Borlaug thought otherwise. He wanted to see if his new wheat seeds could help prevent the looming catastrophe in South Asia. Bureaucrats initially thwarted him. But as the famine grew worse, he was finally permitted to move forward.

Within a year, wheat yields more than doubled. Over the next eight years, the two countries became self-sufficient in wheat production. For his work, Dr. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. In his acceptance speech, Dr. Borlaug quoted the creator of the prize, Alfred Nobel: "I would rather take care of the stomachs of the living than the glory of the departed in the form of monuments."

Read more here & here
Read his interview with Reason magazine here 7 years ago.