Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
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By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. HARKIN):
S. 2250. A bill to award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am calling upon Congress to honor Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the man of whom it is often said ``has saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived,'' with the Congressional Gold Medal.
Dr. Borlaug is commonly known in the agricultural world and beyond as the father of the Green Revolution. His accomplishments in terms of bringing radical change to world agriculture and uplifting humanity are without parallel.
Named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential minds of the 20th Century, Norman E. Borlaug is one of the great stories of our time. Norm, as he is known to all who work with him, was born in 1914 to Norwegian-American parents outside the town of Cresco in northeast Iowa near the Iowa/Minnesota border. His boyhood was spent on a Norman Rockwellesque farm and in a one-room schoolhouse. Eventually Norm found his way to the University of Minnesota where he became a star in Big Ten Wrestling and earned a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology.
Following World War II, he spent 20 years working in the poorest areas of rural Mexico. It was there that Dr. Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in developing a strand of wheat that could exponentially increase yields while actively resisting disease.
With the strong support of the governments involved, Dr. Borlaug's Green Revolution uplifted hundreds of thousands of the rural poor in Mexico and saved hundreds of millions from famine and outright starvation in India and Pakistan. His approach to wheat production next spread throughout the Middle East and was then adapted to rice growing, increasing the number of lives saved to more than one billion people.
In 1970 Norman E. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the only person working in agriculture to ever be so honored, for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world. Since then, he has received numerous honors and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The National Academy of Sciences' highest honor--the Public Service Medal, and the Rotary International Award for World
Understanding and Peace.
At age 91, Dr. Borlaug continues to alleviate poverty and malnutrition. He currently serves as president of Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa Project, which seeks to extend the benefits of agricultural development to the 800 million people still mired in poverty and malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Finally, Dr. Borlaug continues as Chairman of the Council of Advisors for the World Food Prize, an organization he created in 1986 to be the ``Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture''.
The World Food Prize presents $250,000 award each October at an international ceremony in Des Moines, IA, to the Laureate who has made an exceptional achievement similar to Dr. Borlaug's breakthrough forty years ago. Beyond recognizing these people for their personal accomplishments, Borlaug saw the World Food Prize as a means of establishing role models who would inspire others.
In the 20 years of its existence, the World Food Prize has honored Laureates from Bangladesh, India, China, Mexico, Denmark, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
While Dr. Borlaug was born in Iowa, he is truly a citizen of all of America and, indeed, of all the world. The State of Minnesota has enacted a special day of recognition in his honor; He continues as a teacher, serving as a Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University; and he has received honorary degrees from colleges and universities in virtually every state of the union.
Reflecting this fact, a year ago the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating October 16 as World Food Prize Day in America in honor of Dr. Borlaug. Beyond that, his name is widely recognized in Mexico, India, Pakistan and the Middle East reflecting his great humanitarian achievements in those countries. And he continues to be honored throughout South Asia and Africa, for his ongoing efforts to expand the benefits of the Green Revolution to the hundreds of millions of people still suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition.
Dr. Borlaug's achievements are in keeping with the recent presentation of Congressional Gold Medals.
For over a half century, the scientific and humanitarian achievements of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug have kept starvation at bay for millions of people in third world countries. Through the passage of this legislation, the United States Senate can recognize the humanitarian contributions Dr. Borlaug has made to the entire world. The man who has saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived certainly deserves the highest honor the Congress can bestow.
As the only working farmer in the U.S. Senate, I am proud and honored to introduce this important bill, and I call upon my colleagues to support this noble legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
S. 2250
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