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I'm talking here at homeI tend to be one of the first people to complain when major media sources target modern agriculture. So, I better tell you about the few times when they actually get it right. Here is one such instance: In the Wall Street Journal last week, the first sentence of an article read: "Norman Borlaug--arguably the greatest American of the 20th century--died late Saturday after 95 richly accomplished years." With that said, I would be willing to bet that not 10 out of 100 soccer moms in a random poll could tell you who Norman Borlaug was. Actually, I wonder, before the announcement of his death last week, how many people in agriculture could tell you that this man is credited with saving more human lives than any other person? The Wall Street Journal appropriately continued: "Born in 1914 in rural Cresco, Iowa, where he was educated in a one-room schoolhouse, Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work ending the India-Pakistan food shortage of the mid-1960s. He spent most of his life in impoverished nations, patiently teaching poor farmers in India, Mexico, South America, Africa, and elsewhere the Green Revolution agricultural techniques that have prevented the global famines widely predicted when the world population began to skyrocket following World War II." Speaking in New Orleans in 1993, Mr. Borlaug said the handwriting was on the wall, "They claim that the consumer is being poisoned out of existence by the current high-yielding systems of agricultural production and recommend we revert back to lower-yielding, so-called sustainable technologies." While a few people were commenting 15 years ago about the dangers of modern science and technology in agriculture, you know as well as I do that the fearmongering has only accelerated in the past decade. The thing is nobody is asking the less fortunate of our great nation what they think about this revolution in food production. The elitists in our society are influencing policy and creating a tougher environment for the average person in this country to access food. It is one thing if a country does not possess the knowledge or available technology needed to feed its people. Norman Borlaug created the opportunity for developing nations to learn to feed their own people. It is simply stupid for us to allow the number of hungry people in our country to continue to rise when we have the tools and know-how to feed them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that 35 million Americans are food insecure, which simply means they don't know where their next meal is coming from. I personally went into a Salvation Army shelter a couple of weeks ago in Springfield, Ill. I asked the shelter manager, Dave MacDonna III, how many people request food grown locally or without biotechnology. He quickly informed me that they only care about getting food for their families, not about the political story that comes along with it. In fact, this year the demand for food in his shelter has skyrocketed. A family can get groceries only once every 90 days. In a community of 116,000 they are still giving away $3,000 worth of groceries every week and there are seven food pantries in Springfield. I wish that the world and, most importantly, the United States, would really get a grasp of the great work that was accomplished by Norman Borlaug before his passing. I believe even he would have told us all that he didn't care about the recognition, he simply wanted all societies to accept the available technology that would prevent hunger in any country. I truly hope the elite of this country catch on to what this man has done and said and then realize that their political games and lack of hands-on knowledge about modern agriculture are hurting human beings, not just half way around the globe, but right here at home. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com.
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