Forgive me. I steal a few thoughts from an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. I do so because they concern a man who may have saved more lives than any man in history. And for another reason. One that concerns faith in humanity and its potential. And cynical lack of faith.

Norman Borlaug is an agricultural scientist. He is 93 and still works. Works on what he has worked on since the mid-1940’s. He develops better grains.

In the 40’s and 50’s he worked in Mexico. Where people starved because of poor wheat harvests. He helped isolate and develop strains of wheat that shrugged off disease. Strains that grew more wheat than old strains. He helped develop fertilizing systems. And ideal growing methods. And better irrigation systems.

By the time he moved on, in 1963, Mexico’s farmers harvested six times more wheat that when he arrived. And millions who would have starved or died, did not. They lived.

Next, Norman tackled the poor rice and grain yields of India and Pakistan. And the Philippines and Indonesia and China. Over thirty years he has worked his magic. And food production in those countries has soared. Thanks to him.

Norman Borlaug won a Nobel prize and other honors. Bur his name is unknown to most of us. And to the perhaps 1 billion people he helped to save with more food.