Thirty-Five Years Later, General Assembly Honors Nobel Winner

On Thursday, the Iowa General Assembly honored Iowa native Norman Borlaug, the Sioux City Journal reports. Borlaug has spent his life developing techniques to help improve food production in developing nations, including India, Pakistan, and Mexico. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

The Senate said in its resolution that it “honors and expresses its thanks to Prof. Norman Borlaug, a Cresco, Iowa, native, who has made it his life’s work to feed the hungry and uplift the poor, and in doing so has made the 21st Century a time of hope for billions of people.”

Although Borlaug left Iowa at a young age, he credits his upbringing here as being crucial to his work.

“It was that black soil under my fingernails that led me in the worst of the Depression of the 1930s to seek a career in agriculture,” he said.

It is nice to know that we get to take credit for the work of all those famous people that were born in Iowa–and then high-tailed it out of here as soon as possible. Nice work, Borlaug, Herbert Hoover, and John Wayne.

Add comment March 17th, 2006