"The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#1

Post by kitcar » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 9:03 PM UTC

As far as where the title reference comes from - Norman Borlaug on Penn and Teller: BS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

"The greatest human being who ever lived" has died
theglobeandmail.com

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#2

Post by drubio » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 9:41 PM UTC

Unbelievable, I'll take the 'over the top titles' but false economic statements like: "When his seeds were used widely in 1963, Mexico instantly went from famine-prone to a wheat-exporter. Their wheat harvest was six times greater after"

I guess that's why Mexico has been a net wheat IMPORTER since the 70's , subsidized and even banned wheat imports to protect the agro industry. Relevant sources without the sensationalist tones:

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache%3ApHwA9V6vKXgJ%...

http://translate.google.com.mx/translate?hl=en&sl=es&#38...

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#3

Post by req2 » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 9:48 PM UTC

This has been covered a few times already.

Here's one:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=819926

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#4

Post by seldo » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 9:57 PM UTC

There's a whole sub-genre of science fiction written in the late 1950s which took for granted that in the future there would be wars for food and perpetual famine due to an ongoing population explosion. The green revolution and birth control are the two simple but world-changing inventions that staved off that apocalypse, which seemed so inevitable at the time.

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#5

Post by ecq » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 9:57 PM UTC

voted down for misleading title. i'm still alive.

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#6

Post by gcheong » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 10:05 PM UTC

Norman Borlaug on Penn and Teller's Bullshit! program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#7

Post by skwiddor » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 10:07 PM UTC

instead he's killed us all

700 years ago there were two million people in my country, now 60,000,000+

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#8

Post by awt » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 10:12 PM UTC

This is an honest question: How does creating more food prevent these problems? Won't populations grow enough to consume all available food? Haven't populations in 3rd world countries exploded since the "green revolution"?

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#9

Post by mynameishere » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 10:18 PM UTC

seldo wrote: post #4

There's a whole sub-genre of science fiction written in the late 1950s which took for granted that in the future there would be wars for food and perpetual famine due to an ongoing population explosion. The green revolution and birth control are the two simple but world-changing inventions that staved off that apocalypse, which seemed so inevitable at the time.

Staved = Pushed back the date.

....

I'm honestly not sure why people are dazzled by this guy. Partly it was...his specific intention to increase yields, which make him seem like a humanitarian. The Fordson tractor did more for agriculture (and, much much much more for the economy and day-to-day existence) than this guy. Is Henry Ford the greatest human being who ever lived?

Re: "The greatest human being who ever lived" has died

#10

Post by hughprime » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 10:36 PM UTC

awt wrote: post #8

This is an honest question: How does creating more food prevent these problems? Won't populations grow enough to consume all available food? Haven't populations in 3rd world countries exploded since the "green revolution"?

I think the assumption is that eventually the world's population will stabilize as third-world folks start breeding at bare replacement levels like rich folks do. If we (as a species) can keep producing enough food right up to that point, then we're fine. The alternative is that we hit the point where a massive worldwide famine (like, hundreds of millions of deaths) is required to get things back in balance. I'd rather avoid this if at all possible.

As far as I know, ever since the discovery of agriculture we as a species have never really been at the point (except on local and temporary scales) where the population was limited by available food. Reaching that point would get extremely ugly.