Dire Outlook
Prior to Borlaug’s arrival, wheat development within India and Pakistan was in critical condition. With government priorities elsewhere agriculture suffered, and the in the 1960’s mass famine was predicted throughout Asia.
"Everything else can wait, agriculture can't."
-Norman Borlaug
Original Interview from the Academy of Achievement
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"I personally cannot live comfortably in the midst of adjacent hunger, poverty and human misery, if I have the possibilities of-- even in a modest way, with the help of many scientific colleges--of doing something about improving lives." |
Forecasts in Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, summarized the circumstances. "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now”.
*Click image to enlarge
Article from the New York Times Newspaper Archives