Fewer, Richer, Greener

8Food

The Greatest Person in History?

“In one episode of the TV series Bullshit!,” writes the author and historian Johan Norberg,

the magicians Penn and Teller play a game of “The Greatest Person in History,” with all the pretenders, religious leaders, presidents, and revolutionary leaders in one deck. Like poker, each player places bets based on how good their cards are—but they might be bluffing. Penn draws one card and immediately goes all in, because he knows he is going to win. . . . He drew Norman Borlaug.

Clearly, Norberg (see Figure 8.1) is fooling around and having fun. But a case really can be made that the Iowa agronomist was the greatest person in history. His invention of Green Revolution techniques and his work in bringing them to the world’s poorest countries have given rise to a revolution in the food supply. We’ve gone, in a little more than a generation, from a condition where the Club of Rome, in 1972, could plausibly forecast worldwide famine by the end of that decade to one in which it is unimaginable (obesity is a bigger problem). And all of that was accomplished while the world’s population doubled!¹

Figure 8.1 Norman Borlaug at work.

Source: Conner Flecks/Alamy Stock Photo.

The versatile author and environmentalist Stewart Brand recalls:

Norman Borlaug, the one [biographer Charles] Mann calls “the Wizard,” was a farm kid trained as a forester. ...