A must read…The Man Who Fed The World.

This is my first book review or actually a book recommendation. I guess I did recommend a children’s book in my Arf blog, but I didn’t really do a review. So here we go, my review of The Man Who Fed The World.

My view of this book is…….everyone should read it. Period. Yes, it is about agriculture. It is about history in agriculture. I firmly believe that in order to know why we are were we are at, and how we got to were we are at, you need to look at history. This book did that for me. This book is more about the context then the actual story. It’s about the important take away knowledge one learns from this book.

As I said, in my opinion and in my Farmers opinion, everyone should read this book. He is the reason I read it. I am the reason he read it. I bought it for him not knowing anything about it. Now we are sharing it with others.

To be honest, I was a little hesitant to read this book. I am not big on ag terms, ag statictics, and etc. That’s my Farmers job. When it talked about Mr. Borlaug getting a job in Idaho at a lookout, it got my attention, since I live in Idaho and lookouts fascinate me. That section didn’t last long, but I was committed to reading it. And I am so glad I did.

These are the words taken from the backside of the book.

“From the day he was born in 1914, Norman Borlaug has been an enigma. How could a child of the Iowa prairie, who attended a one-teacher, one-room school; who flunked the university entrance exam; and whose highest ambition was to be a high school science teacher and athletic coach, ultimately achieve the distinction as one of the hundred most influential persons of the twentieth century? And receive the Nobel Peace Prize for averting hunger and famine? And eventually be hailed as the man who saved hundreds of millions of lives from starvation—more than any other person in history?
What is it that made Norman Borlaug different? What drove him? What can we—especially our youth—learn from his life?
In illuminating those questions, The Man Who Fed The World provides a loving and respectful portrait of one of America’s greatest heroes”

THE MAN WHO FED THE WORLD. — Leon Hesser

This book answered a lot of questions for me. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, we were taught things that are not taught today. Such as families should only have 2 kids. We have to keep the population down. We can’t feed everyone. After reading this book, I now know why people thought this way. People, even whole countries, were starving. One country was even written off. The world had to many people to feed and there was not enough help insight.

This is a quote from a section in the book…

“Borlaug said, ‘Critics of our attempt to assist both India and Pakistan to improve their cereal production were numerous, scandalous, and demoralizing. They said we were recklessly playing with the lives of millions.’
“Some argued that there was no hope for saving overpopulated India; they advocated a system of classification based on population size and growth rate. This international triage would simply abandon those countries beyond salvation to starvation, lest in trying unsuccessfully to save them, other nations perhaps salvageable would also be lost.”
“But the poor and hungry people in South Asia has a different slant on the Green Revolution!”

THE MAN WHO FED THE WORLD –Leon Hesser

Once again, in my opinion, everyone should read this book. It makes you realize that starvation can be real. It was real. It is real. Be thankful that we are not there. Be thankful that these other countries are better off then they were 60 years ago, because of one mans thinking, his commitment, and his untiring efforts.

My take away from this book is this…
It’s not about GMOs.
It’s not about organic or non-orgainic.
Its not about making more money or profits.

It’s about a man who seen people starving.
A man who visioned he could do something about it.
A man who had the courage and commitment to do something about it.

It’s about a man who used plant breeding, his knowledge, and his determination to feed nations that were marked as doomed. And then he kept continuing on.

And of course, as with all great men, Mr. Borlaug had a good woman behind him all the way.

I bought this book from the American Farm Bureau Federation website. Which is a fantastic website, by the way, especially if you are looking for ag related educational material. They have some awesome materials! I also found that Amazon has the book. Of course they do. They have like everything! Here is the link for the book there.

Thanks for reading my first book review blog post. I have no idea the right way to do one, but this is how I did mine. I’m better at writing stories about my Farmer. But a girl blogger has to step out of her comfort zone once in a while. Right!?! Yep, that’s what it’s all about, so they say.

Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is.