Norman Borlaug is the mild-mannered maverick who lifted the world s food supply and saved a billion lives. He died the day before this book went to press. Having spent more than a decade assessing him and his contributions, the author sadly appended a few thoughts that included the following:
 More than a man of peace, he was a man of the people. His style and personality matched his frame lean, active, unassuming, unpretentious. People not only responded, they bonded.
 Though otherwise a nice guy, he was a fierce, take-no-quarter, Hunger Fighter. His field was action science, not academic science. Among the wheat he was so intense people got hot just watching him work.
 He was a master at managing mayhem and had an innate ability to transcend anxiety. Though often treated like a heretic in heaven, he never took offense, never abandoned his convictions, seldom lost composure. When it looked as if the Rockies had crumbled, he went on exploring the mysteries of the wheat world with his normal intensity . . .waiting for just the right gene to surface like a fish in a pool.
 He was not a man of inspiring words, just inspiring wheats. But those spoke volumes.
 He was never one to look in life's rear-view mirror; being too busy driving hard into the future for anything so wasteful of time.
 The only burden to never afflict him was the burden of extreme wealth. He worked his whole life without personal gain and was happy, nay eager, to let everyone else reap the rewards.
 While others dreamed and dithered, he proved his worth through deeds. He chose to fight hunger not to write about it. And he chose to fight it full-frontal, full-scale, and in the places that needed food most. Moreover, he was an all-round Hunger Fighter a source of all the necessary ammunition.
 His great gift was to share his exuberance and conviction. His spirits were usually as high as the Sonoran Desert thermometer at harvest time. With his associates many of them disadvantaged youths he developed an extraordinary esprit de corps. They trusted one another, and that provided a key to their success.
 He taught us what to do when the diktats of dogma block humanitarian needs. "Fight," he d often say; "Fight, fight, fight!"
 He admired horizon-filling miles of his own wheats but never gloated. He took yields to galactic heights but saw it only as his job and always felt unfulfilled.
 His ultimate legacy resulted less from science than from his power to reach farmers and excite them into action. He fed the hungry but also created the right environment for a robust rural private sector. Every Borlaug seed enriched its grower and was its own excitement machine. Millions thereby got a hand up; none a handout.
 When he had to shift the shape of the world's top crop, he embraced the unprecedented challenge. And for decades he and wheat were wrapped in their own private world, swirling in a sort of creative frenzy.
 Finally, no one better epitomizes the notion that the 20th century was above all the century of the common man.
 Farewell old friend. You came from nowhere. You reached for your stars and caught plenty of stardust. The waving fields of foodstuffs are your legacy. Among the members of the Greatest Generation, you were the greatest!
 Noel

Borlaug; Volume 2, Wheat Whisperer 1944-1959

Noel Vietmeyer

Bracing Books

Having received the Nobel Prize for Peace, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal, Norman Borlaug ranks beside Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. But few people know his name.
Our Daily Bread shows why Borlaug should also be a household name. It portrays the making of a modern miracle that is unique, unknown, and of universal benefit. It is the story of how one man saved billions from certain hunger. And it shows how we too got our daily bread.
In these pages you'll find a gripping journey complete with chance, change and endless challenge. Norman Borlaug followed his own course in his own fashion. Frequently he put himself at odds with authority. Precedents that got in the way were ignored. Having found how to lift food production, he stuck to his mission, regardless of all those who declared him wrong.
That is the thrill ride to be found herein as the Borlaug saga unfolds, teetering forever on the verge of failure only to be saved by some saintly stranger or improbable coincidence. It's been called the greatest story never told. It's also been called the world's first cereal thriller.
This book arose out of the author's Borlaug trilogy. It provides the essence of this agricultural scientist's amazing life story in a single volume that is fast-paced and that employs a simple direct style and includes many new details.

Borlaug; Volume 1, Right off the Farm 1914-1944

Volume 3 exposes the almost incredible saga of how the seeds Norman Borlaug created in Mexico [Volume 2] ended up saving millions of lives on the far side of the world.
 As the book opens, Borlaug is so little appreciated his wheat-breeding program has been closed down. He's resigned himself to becoming a banana breeder in Honduras.
 As the book closes in 1969 India and Pakistan have survived a famine and, thanks to Borlaug's Mexican wheats and his long, lonely struggle, food production is soaring.
 All the behind-the-scenes drama is here to be relished for the first time. These pages expose dozens more adventures, surprises, and "Angels of Deliverance" as Norm rises from his career's lowest point to its ultimate high point.
 Expect more tears. And lots of cheers!

Borlaug; Volume 3, Bread Winner 1960-1969

Having received the Nobel Prize for Peace, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal, Norman Borlaug ranks beside Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. But few people know his name.
Our Daily Bread shows why Borlaug should also be a household name. It is the story of how one man saved billions from certain hunger. And it shows how we too got our daily bread.
In these pages you'll find a gripping journey complete with chance, change and endless challenge. Norman Borlaug followed his own course in his own fashion. Frequently he put himself at odds with authority. Precedents that got in the way were ignored. Having found how to lift food production, he stuck to his mission, regardless of all those who declared him wrong.
That is the thrill ride to be found herein as the Borlaug saga unfolds, teetering forever on the verge of failure only to be saved by some saintly stranger or improbable coincidence. It's been called the greatest story never told. It's also been called the world's first cereal thriller.
This book arose out of the author's Borlaug trilogy. It provides the essence of this agricultural scientist's amazing life story in a single volume that is fast-paced and that employs a simple direct style and includes many new details.

Our Daily Bread, The Essential Norman Borlaug

Children of my generation were constantly pressed to eat everything on their plate. Our mothers seemed to be forever barking: Think of all the starving children in China [or India]! Modern mothers cannot exploit that handy inducement. Despite doubling their populations during the past half-century, China and India grow all the grain their billion-plus populations can eat. BORLAUG; The Mild-Mannered Maverick who Fed a Billion People is a series of books telling why this miraculous transformation almost didn t occur. Without one little-known scientist's charmed career and myriad hairbreadth rescues from professional ruination, China, India and scores of other nations would still be synonymous with famine. And today's world would be much worse off. Great lessons can be learned from this heretofore hidden history. Indeed, this humble man's endeavors provide a blueprint for countering today's resurgence in global hunger. At heart, however, his story highlights the immense power of the human spirit. To that end, it can entertain and inspire everyone, whatever their mission or motivation in life. You see, no one has ever done more to lessen human misery or to increase human happiness than Norman Borlaug. Noel Vietmeyer

Borlaug; The Mild-Mannered Maverick Who Fed a Billion People