Congressional Tribute to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Act of 2006

Madam Speaker, thank you very much. I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for yielding me this time.

I would also like to thank my colleague and friend Congressman Latham for working on this and leading out on this very, very worthwhile tribute to Dr. Borlaug. He is from Iowa. We have known him for some time. As you might reflect, some of you, some years ago he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It was for his work in agriculture. He started the Green Revolution. It was he that led out with the education, the expertise, the research to feed the world. He is credited with a billion people, saved their lives, fed the world--it has been quite a thing.

I happened to be serving in the Iowa legislature at the time. I was appropriations chair, and it looked like the World Food Prize was going to disappear. We saw the opportunity to bring it to Iowa. A great benefactor, which Mr. Latham knows, too, Mr. John Ruan II, saw the need to keep this alive, and so put forth the effort in a hard time in our country, and we called it the agricultural crisis of those days, and was willing to put forth. We started out with a little public-private partnership working together with the understanding that the Ruan family, which they have done, would take it over and run with it. Well, they have.

Dr. Borlaug was the first awardee of the World Food Prize 20 years ago in Iowa, and wow, what an appropriate person to receive this honor. It has been ongoing. Ambassador Quinn, a former ambassador at the State Department for years, serves with distinction as the administrator and CEO of the World Food Prize. It is something we are very proud of in the United States of America. We are very proud of it in our State of Iowa. It is a worthy thing.

We think of our State of Iowa and the surrounding States as the food basket of our country, and so we have a World Food Prize. This is something that we ought to do to identify Dr. Borlaug. He is in his nineties. He is still very vital and vibrant and eloquent in his presentations, and the things he has done to reach out around the world with young people is most impressive. We have a great program and he is right in the middle of it and still providing a wonderful service, a wonderful example of what we would like to see coming from our country.

Of course, we are very proud, Tom and I and all of us in the delegation, of our State. I might add that our new Members, Mr. Braley and Mr. Lobsack, very much if they were able to would be signed on to this resolution as well, and I wanted to make note of that.

So I rise in support of Senate 2250, a tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug. I would hope that every one of us would make this a unanimous thing, a great American, a great cause, and this is the highest recognition we can give, and we ought to do it.

I am very proud of my fellow Iowan Dr. Borlaug. He is a great humanitarian who has been credited with saving one billion lives. His research and work changed production agriculture, as we know it today. Dr. Borlaug's life has been marked with many accomplishments; one such accomplishment was founding the World Food Prize, which is located in Des Moines, Iowa. The World Food Prize recognizes contributions by individuals who have worked to improve the quality, quantity and availability of the world food supply. I am proud to say the Prize celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.

I would also like to recognize the Ruan family. When the World Food Prize was in trouble the Ruan family created a trust that would support the World Food Prize, patterned after the Nobel Peace Prize. This happened and I am pleased to report that the Ruan family, now under the leadership of John III, has fulfilled their pledge and the World Food Prize is a vital entity that we are very proud of.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for recognizing me and Mr. Frank for his kind words about the great State of Iowa and I thank Mr. Boswell very much for the kind words, a great friend.

I really would like to, first of all, thank the Speaker and the majority leader for allowing this bill to come to the floor today. It is extraordinarily important that we do recognize this great humanitarian.

I would also like to thank my staff who has worked for weeks and weeks on this to get the support that is needed to bring a provision like this to the floor. It is very much appreciated.

Dr. Norman Borlaug truly is an American superhero and really not that many people have heard of him because he has worked very quietly behind the scenes. He has done great things but he is someone who does not seek recognition.

His campaign to save the lives of the world's neediest people through agricultural science deserves this very, very special recognition. How many lives has he saved? Dr. Borlaug's innovative leadership in plant breeding and agricultural production is credited with saving the lives of nearly one billion people. That is right, one billion people.

It was back in 1944 when he was given the task, like Mrs. Biggert mentioned, of researching high-yield, disease-resistant cereal grains to help feed the neediest people, and through all of his efforts he was successful in developing varieties of wheat that completely altered agriculture as we know it in places like Pakistan, India, Mexico, Central America.

The wheat variety he developed has allowed those farmers to produce far more grain than they ever thought possible in those regions. This bounty gave the poorest people of the world an opportunity to be fed and, most importantly, to ensure that their children were not suffering from malnutrition and starvation.

He was the person that is credited with developing the Green Revolution, which changed agriculture, changed food production worldwide. He truly is a legendary figure with the agricultural community, and his name is well-known all across the world.

I am very proud of the fact that Dr. Borlaug was born and raised in my district in Cresco, Iowa, and is known locally as a very modest man who once talked about his accomplishments, and again, as a quote, ``a temporary success in man's war against hunger and deprivation.''

It is almost 40 years since the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Dr. Borlaug. Today, at age 92, he continues to work for improvement in mankind, and for this reason, I introduced H.R. 4924, a companion bill to the underlying measure, Senate 2250, which is a bill to award this great humanitarian, Dr. Norman Borlaug, the Congressional Gold Medal for his lifetime of service to the world.

I know there are many in Congress who do not think about the progress we have made in production agriculture and are probably unaware of the countless contributions made by agricultural scientists like Dr. Norman Borlaug. Dr. Borlaug's leadership has inspired so many young people to enter agricultural sciences today, and his legacy will go on forever, with his forethought and his innovation.

It really is his work and the work of future innovators that will live on in the lives who have been spared so much misery from starvation, and I respectfully urge my colleagues to support the underlying bill so that we can officially recognize this great humanitarian, Dr. Norman Borlaug.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I want to thank very much the chairman to-be of the Financial Services Committee for his cooperation in bringing this forth.

And I might say to the chairman to-be that I understand that you are thinking of a theme of being pro-business with an emphasis on fairness. I think that is a very appropriate theme, and I wish you every success. This Congress has a vested interest in seeing that the next Congress works well, so I wish you well.

I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

I appreciate that very much. Thank you.

I also want to thank Tom Latham. Tom is a wonderful friend, and he has pursued this particular measure for an American citizen that fits all of our definitions of a hero. That is particularly the perspective of all Iowans and I am sure all Americans when we think about Dr. Borlaug's career.

I would only like to make one philosophical contribution to this debate, and that is that Dr. Borlaug has been awarded the Nobel Prize for the green revolution, the notion of pure science being used to expand the production of food crops of various kinds to make it possible for people in the world to have nourishment. But it is the same science that goes into expanding biological crops that allows crops to be used for energy, and so the same science that has produced the green revolution is also producing a black evolution, the idea that food can also be used for petroleum substitutes.

We are today facing a challenge of judgment as well as a challenge of new biology, which Dr. Borlaug is also continuing to work in, that there may not be enough crops that go around for both food and fuel. But, fortunately, it is not exactly an either/or; that is, the same kernels of corn can be used for extracting ethanol as well as producing a food additive for cattle. But we are going to have to continue to develop new techniques to increase yields.

That is what is happening in many great institutions in this country, such as Iowa State University, the University of Missouri, Purdue, Minnesota, et cetera, and we are very proud of that effort.

Dr. Borlaug stands on the shoulders of prior scientists. One from Iowa who we are also very proud of Henry Wallace, actually is the father of the movement which Dr. Borlaug pursued. It was Henry Wallace's idea to establish a research facility in Mexico in the early 1940s. That idea was brought by the then Vice-President to the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation who then chose Dr. Borlaug to head this research effort.

We in Iowa are naturally proud of the role that Iowa scientists have played. That role has been played with the help, to some degree, of government and, to a greater degree, of private charity. So this is a very American initiative and a very American scientific product that this body is honoring today. And it is honoring the leader of it, a gentleman who began his young life as many noble gentlemen begin, as a wrestler. As a wrestler from Cresco, a great Iowa wrestling town, Dr. Borlaug competed in the scientific arena where he has achieved as great merit as any scientist in this country in the 20th century.

We in Iowa are immensely proud, and I would like to thank Tom Latham, the leadership for allowing this bill to come forth, and the bipartisan spirit in which it is brought before us today.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 2250) to award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge Members to join in saluting an American hero who deserves to be recognized for his lifetime service to the world by passing S. 2250, the Congressional Tribute to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Act of 2006.

Senate 2250 directs the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate to make appropriate arrangements to award a gold medal on behalf of Congress to Dr. Norman Borlaug in recognition of his enduring contributions in fighting hunger around the world. This legislation is identical to H.R. 4924, introduced by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham).

Madam Speaker, Dr. Borlaug is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient of whom few have heard, a humanitarian responsible for mounting a global campaign against hunger that saved so many of the world's neediest people through agricultural science.

In 1944, he took on the task of researching high-yield and disease- resistant cereal grains. Through trial and error, Dr. Borlaug's efforts led to the development of varieties of wheat that completely altered production agriculture as it was then known in places like Pakistan, India and Mexico. The dwarf wheat variety allowed farmers to produce far more grain per acre than anyone could have predicted. This newfound bounty gave the world's poorest people access to food, ensuring children who otherwise would have been victims of malnutrition could thrive.

Dr. Borlaug's landmark discoveries in agriculture led to what is called the ``Green Revolution.'' However, this modest man, born and raised in Cresco, Iowa, and educated in Minnesota, once said his accomplishments were only ``a temporary success in man's war against hunger and deprivation.''

Madam Speaker, I recognize that many in Congress and throughout the country do not know about the progress we have made in production agriculture and are unaware of the countless contributions made by agricultural scientists such as Dr. Borlaug. However, his leadership has inspired so many others of our best and brightest students to pursue careers in agriculture sciences, and his work will live on in the lives of those who have been spared the misery of starvation.

Madam Speaker, this is an honor long overdue, and I would urge immediate passage of this important legislation.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham), the sponsor of the identical legislation, H.R. 4924.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman also from Iowa (Mr. Leach), and he has been a great leader and we will miss him in Congress.

I would recognize the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) for 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 2250 to pay tribute to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug for his life's work to feed the world's poor.

It is because of Dr. Borlaug's success in developing high-yield and disease resistant cereal grains that billions of the world's poorest people have been fed.

In 1944, Dr. Borlaug's work began when he and his research team were tasked by the Rockefeller Foundation to increase wheat production in Mexico. Through years of cross-breading thousands of wheat varieties, they were able to develop high-yield dwarf wheat that was resistant to diseases known to cause significant crop damage such as ``rust'' fungi. As a result, Mexico became self-sufficient in wheat production.

Dr. Borlaug's findings came at a time when dire predictions were being made about the world's population growth and the possibility of mass starvation in poorer parts of the world. But, he continued to build on his findings from his work in Mexico and later worked with researchers in Pakistan and India to give farmers in those countries and regions high-yield dwarf wheat to increase their wheat production. The outreach was successful, and like Mexico, those countries also became self-sufficient in producing wheat.

It is for this work that Dr. Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. When the board was presenting him with the honor, they made the following statement on his humanitarian contributions: ``More than any other single person of this age, [he] has helped to provide bread for a hungry world. We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.''

In today's world, it is easy to get caught up in our everyday lives and to overlook some of the landmark achievements that have made dramatic improvements in the lives of others. In this case, one individual improved the lives of billions of people by giving them access to life-sustaining nourishment.

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Borlaug's contributions to help relieve the world's poorest of hunger have saved billions of lives, and have inspired a new generation of researchers in agriculture to continue the fight against hunger. It is for these reasons that I ask my colleagues to support this bill to honor Dr. Borlaug with the Congressional Gold Medal..