FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2002

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT TO SPEAK AT DRAKE

Norman Borlaug, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in developing new high yield strains of wheat that led to the “Green Revolution,” will give a lecture titled “Food and Hunger in Africa” at Drake University on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will start at 12:30 p.m. in Bulldog Theater in Olmsted Center, 29th Street and University Avenue. The event is sponsored by the Drake Center for Global Citizenship and the World Food Prize Institute.

The agricultural techniques pioneered by Borlaug have been widely credited with ending the periodic famines that previously led to death and despair in India and Pakistan. In 1986 he established the annual World Food Prize, an award given by the Des Moines-based World Food Prize Institute that recognizes individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

In 2002, the Iowa legislature declared Oct. 16 of each year to be “Norman Borlaug World Food Prize Day.” Also, he recently was given the 2002 Rotary International Award for World Understanding and Peace. According to the Atlantic Monthly, “Borlaug has already saved more lives than any other person who ever lived.”

Borlaug, a native of Cresco, Iowa, earned his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Minnesota.

For more information, call (515) 271-3843 or send an e-mail message to david.skidmore@drake.edu.