Norman Borlaug Quotes
Almost certainly, the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world. Yet today 50 percent of the world’s population goes hungry. Without food, man can live at most but a few weeks; without it, all other components of social justice are meaningless.
Borlaug, Norman. "The Green Revolution, Peace, and Humanity." Nobel Lectures, Peace 1951-1970, edited by Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Co., 1972, pp. 456-498.
The president was right. There is enough food to go around. The problem however is logistical, economic, and political. Some countries use food as a weapon to keep their own people under control. The major problem is the distribution of the food. It has to be transported from where it is gown to where it should be consumed. Much food in the third world rots because the transportation system cannot move the food efficiently enough. Even when food is donated to nations, the free or cheap food undercuts the local farmers who go out of business and there is even less food the following year.
The mal-distribution of resource problem is common in most societies.
So often diplomatic negotations are ongoing about “solutions” to world problems while people in crisis do not get any immediate help which is needed.
Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
