‘Green Revolution’ father passes
Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman E. Borlaug died Saturday in Dallas. His 95 years on earth were literally fruitful, as he probably did more than anyone in modern history to help the world feed itself with research breakthroughs in plant pathology. Acclaimed as the father of the Green Revolution, Borlaug’s advances in developing disease- and insect-resistant crops dramatically increased food production in Latin America and Asia, earning him the Nobel prize in 1970. At times he was criticized by environmentalists and others who said he created more problems than he solved. According to The New York Times, Borlaug shrugged them off as rich elites who never had to worry about where their next meal was coming from. One expert told The Times about half the world’s population goes to bed each night after eating grain descended from one of the high-yield varieties developed by Borlaug and his colleagues. Talk about impact.
Harvest moan
Citizens are reveling in the price for a commodity they can’t do without – gasoline – just as they were grumbling about a price they could do nothing about a few months ago. For farmers and ranchers, commodity prices are a matter of survival. They can do little to control commodity prices and must live with the fact that larger harvests depress prices and lower harvests raise them – just when they have less of a crop to sell. Weather is the “commodity” that no one can control. Oklahoma harvests were generally mediocre last year, the Tulsa World reports, and farmers were often unable to take advantage of higher prices for some crops because of weather. The state’s cotton, corn and hay crops were down in 2008, but wheat, soybeans and peanuts had improved harvests from 2007. Think filling your gas tank was rough last summer? Try making a living when your petroleum-based inputs such as diesel and fertilizer are sky high and the skies are lowering with storm clouds right before harvest.
