Some experts say American plant breeder Norman Borluang has saved more lives than any other person who ever lived. In the 1950s he developed a high-yield, low-pesticide dwarf wheat upon which a substantial portion of the world now depends. At the same time, scientists in Asia developed new strains of rice. With the use of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation they ushered in the so-called "Green Revolution."

Achieving higher yields from fewer acres is the most environmentally favorable development of the modern age, say experts, and has saved many millions from starvation and malnutrition.

• In 1950 the world produced 692 million tons of grain for 2.2 billion people.

• By 1992 production was 1.9 billion tons for 5.6 billion people -- 2.8 times the grain for 2.2 times the population.

• While the world's 1950 output came from 1.7 billion acres of cropland, the 1992 output came from 1.73 billion acres -- a 170 percent increase using only one percent more land.

• This allowed the globe's daily per capita food intake to grow from 2,063 calories in 1965 to 2,495 in 1990, with a greater proportion from protein.

Borluang won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for averting famine in India and Pakistan in the 1960s.

• By 1968 Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat production, and by 1974 India met all its cereal needs -- sparing an estimated 100 million acres of virgin land and almost halting deforestation in the past five years.

• Privatization and dwarf rice have doubled yields per acre in China since about 1970.

• In Brazil, new strains of wheat that can grow on pastures with a high aluminum content has slowed the cutting of the rainforest.

Over the protests of environmentalists, Borluang is working to bring high-yield agriculture to Africa, which still depends on slash-and-burn subsistence farming. Due to his efforts, Ethiopia recorded the greatest harvest of major crops in its history during the 1995-96 season with a 32 percent increase in production and a 15 percent increase in average yield over the previous season.

Source: Gregg Easterbrook, "Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity," Atlantic Monthly, February 1997.