“When I last spoke to Borlaug, a few years before he passed away, I asked him about the past criticisms. Critics, he said, never wanted to answer the counterfactual question: Where would the world be today if we had the same growth in population and affluence but none of the yield increases of the Green Revolution? Overuse of fertilizer, water-logging soils, loading up land with toxic salts from badly run irrigation schemes—these were real issues, he said. But wouldn't you rather have these for problems than the kind of hunger we had in 1968? He asked me if I had ever been to a place where most of the people weren't getting enough to eat. "Not just poor, but actually hungry all the time," he said. I told him that I hadn't been to such a place. "That's the point," he said. "When I was getting started, you couldn't avoid them.”
Quote by Charles C. Mann
Work
The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
“When I was a student at MIT I was interested only in science; I was no good at anything else.”
Source: [ SURELY, YOU'RE JOKING MR FEYNMAN AND WHAT DO YOU CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK? ] By Feynman, Richard P ( Author) 2006 [ Compact Disc ]
“In fact, physics must be studied alone--you must teach yourself.”
Source: The Forager Brothers: Ghost Light
Source: A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future
Source: The Organism Is a Theory: Giuseppe Longo on Biology, Mathematics, and AI
“Nothing is fact, everything is flux.”
Source: With Love From A Blue Rock
Source: Doğa Üzerine ve Yönteme Karşı - On Nature & Against Method, Reflections & Propositions
Source: Pumpkin Dessert with Tahini in the Cloud Chamber - Without Walnuts & Neutrinoless: Science & Poetry, Volume IV
