The Passing of the Torch
We have all wondered how it would be without Norman Borlaug. A student during the Great Depression was later tempered into steel by the caldron of abject poverty around him as he battled with his life long nemesis, wheat rust, on research farms in Mexico that were barely more tillable than the road he drove to them. He took it all on single-handedly; miserable living conditions, canned food and rodents put him to sleep each night on dirt floors, back breaking field work, institutional barriers, rejection by the very farmers he was trying to help, and, of course, the “ever shifty and constantly changing foe of the food supply.”
The things that don’t kill us are said to make us stronger and that certainly was true for Norman E. Borlaug because he became the world’s most credible and effective crusader for using science and policy to eliminate poverty and hunger. He put his heart and soul into personally trying to solve world hunger and into imploring others to do all they could as well. Beginning with the bird boys, whom he turned into scientists and managers, Norm inoculated everyone he met with the idea that eliminating hunger was the road to social justice.
Like many, I watched and listened at the World Food Prize activities this year trying to get a sense of “life after Norman” only to realize that, like the rust he battled his whole life, everyone had already been inoculated. When you think about it, Norm had been passing the torch his whole life through his famous assignments, particularly to young scientists, in his speeches, and in pressing everyone he met including the most powerful into action. From the first time I met him as a graduate student to the last time at a small dinner in Obregon at the March 2009 Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, he was constantly pushing people to do more in the fight against hunger.
Norman viewed his Hunger Fighters in the same way he used “spreader varieties” to inoculate his nurseries with rust. In this case, people were inspired to spread the word and to spring into action. Dr. Borlaug understood one thing perhaps better than anyone, though, which was that an understanding does not necessarily mean action. His frustration with bureaucrats could perhaps be traced to this difference. For years he heard people say, “Yes, Norm, I got it”, only to see them do nothing in terms of solving the problem. As a man of action, he also knew that not all inoculations would take but, if he inoculated everyone he encountered with the cause, there would be enough people springing into action to make a difference.
In our last conversation at the cantina, Norman said he was pleased to hear we were going ahead with the MBBI program because it meant there would be more young scientists becoming Hunger Fighters. It reminded him of the training programs he instituted at CIMMYT and, in vintage Borlaug he said, “You need to make sure they understand the importance of what they are doing so that they never give up. “ He went on to quote his high school wrestling coach as he had done so many times in the past:
Give your best
Believe you can succeed
Face adversity squarely
Be confident you’ll find the answers when problems arise
Then go out and win some bouts!
When I remember all of the stories told by and about Norman, it is completely amazing that anyone would persevere as he did against all of the odds and the setbacks. In retrospect it is possible, as he did himself, to assemble a series of events and mentors that shaped him and made his ultimate contributions possible. But, back in the day, when it was all happening, the possibility of saving a billion lives was as improbable as the idea that Norman E. Borlaug would be the one to do it. One of Norm’s many legacies is that he pursued the dream provided by possibilities instead of being dissuaded by the multiplication of infinitesimal probabilities and in doing so he has given us a model for improving the human condition.
