[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4876]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO NORMAN BORLAUG

  (Mr. LEACH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, when all is said and done, what defines our 
country is the people who are the American family.
  In a world which today is rife with conflict, it is particularly 
appropriate to pause and give recognition to an individual who has 
dedicated his life to bringing hope and sustenance to the family of 
man. No one symbolizes a sense of common purpose and community more 
than a native son of Iowa, Norman Borlaug.
  In the spring of 1941, the newly elected Vice President of the United 
States, another son of the Iowa soil, Henry Wallace, attended his first 
Cabinet meeting and suggested that the greatest challenge of the era 
involved the need to develop higher yielding crops in the developing 
world. Franklin Roosevelt's preoccupation at the time was presumably on 
the war in Europe and the possibility that the United States would soon 
become engaged. Accordingly, he suggested that Wallace, an agronomist 
credited with the development of hybrid corn, contact principals of the 
Rockefeller Brothers Foundation in New York to see if they would be 
interested in advancing such a project, initially in Mexico. They were 
and they did. The individual they selected to lead the initiative was 
Norman Borlaug, who three decades later received the Nobel Peace Prize 
for pioneering leadership of the Green Revolution, the astonishing 
biogenetic advancement which saved the lives of millions on the planet.
  The Congress and the American people have reason to suggest with 
pride that part of the American family is this gentle scientist from 
Cresco, Iowa. We honor him tonight and thank him for his service to 
humanity.

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