Plain English with Derek Thompson

Plain History: How Norman Borlaug Stopped the Apocalypse

97 snips
May 16, 2025
Charles C. Mann, a journalist and author, dives into the impactful story of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution. Mann discusses how Borlaug developed disease-resistant wheat that revolutionized agriculture and alleviated fears of impending famine. He reveals how, despite warnings of mass starvation in the 1960s, innovations in farming practices led to a dramatic decrease in global hunger. The conversation emphasizes the legacy of Borlaug's work, which has saved potentially a billion lives, and the ongoing importance of agricultural innovation in tackling modern food security challenges.
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INSIGHT

Super Wheat Avoided Famine

  • Predictions of global famine in the 1960s due to population growth proved wrong as famine deaths declined by 90% since the 1970s.
  • This dramatic turnaround was largely due to advances in agriculture producing super wheat and other innovations.
ANECDOTE

Borlaug's Laborious Crossbreeding

  • Norman Borlaug crossbred hundreds of varieties of wheat by hand in a hot, lean-to shack using just tweezers to combat stem rust.
  • This painstaking, repetitive work involved manually transferring pollen flower by flower all day under harsh conditions without advanced tools.
INSIGHT

Short Stalks Stop Lodging

  • Borlaug solved wheat lodging by using a rare, naturally short Japanese wheat variety to breed stout, short stalks.
  • This increased the harvest index from 20% to nearly 50%, making wheat more efficient and stable against collapse.
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