The Man Who Fed The World | Book Review

In The Population Bomb, published in 1968, Paul Ehrlich had written
that it was "a fantasy" that India would "ever" feed itself. By 1974,
India was self-sufficient in the production of all cereals. (p.90)

Leon Hesser's authorized biography of Norman Borlaug, offers us many leadership lessons, especially how much our worldview and values shape our future actions. Subtitled And His Battle to End World Hunger, Borlaug was the only person during the twentieth century who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for work in agriculture and food (p. ix).

This review focuses on Borlaug's values, offers differing contrasts between abundance and scarcity mindsets, and showcases very good examples of John Kotter's Eight-Step change process - occurring over decades.

Values & The Knowing-Doing Gap

Recall in Pfeffer and Sutton's The Knowing-Doing Gap, the best way to cross the Knowing-Doing Gap is learning by doing. Or the authors' First Principle: If You Know by Doing, There is No Gap between What You Know and What You Do.

Borlaug's grandfather Nels would explain how important it was to help other people in times of need (p. 4). We could call that a bias for action. Borlaug's early start in farming extended to academics. "I worked for awhile with a veterinarian, another time with an entomologist. (p. 22) Those experiences helped round out my education." This combination led to experimenting, reminiscent of Edison-level curiosity. New races were formed through hybridization on barberry bushes -- the alternate host of the disease (rust) (p. 25). At the time, rust was a devastating plague on cereal crops.

Abundance & Scarcity

The world was at war (World War I). Mexico, in America's backyard, was critically short on food. India and China were losing the battle in their attempts to match food production with population growth (p. 28). The timing was perfect for a pioneer who had worked in the field overcoming rust to expand his curiosity and techniques regionally. The results: In 1933, less than 1 percent of corn planted in the US Corn Belt was hybrid. Within ten years (p. 29) the percentage rose to 78 (& in Iowa, 99.5 percent).

Borlaug set up dual-site experiments in Mexico, and during his first weeks there it was clear that hopelessness pervaded the lives of most people (p. 39). He began to realize his challenges were not just agricultural, they were psychological as well. Borlaug's habit of learning by doing was the opposite of the prevailing manager/farmer paradigm: "That's why the farmers have no respect for you." (p. 43) - a manager was designated as a "limpio saco," or clean shirt, unwilling to get dirty working alongside farmers. A respected farmer from Sonora wrote: "Perhaps it is the first time in the history of Mexico that any scientist tried to help our farmers." (p. 53)

Upon succeeding in Mexico, or demonstrating abundance through creativity and persistence, challenges remained in much of the world. After visiting Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (supported in part by the United Nations) Borlaug mused that half of humanity was going to bed hungry (p. 68). Why was so little done at the national levels of government?

"They were government servants with secure jobs
and little incentive to address farmer's problems." (p. 68)

Malthusian thought -- unchecked population growth always exceeds the growth and means of subsistence -- was reawakening. Many biologists and economists were siding with Malthus (p. 79). Borlaug was undeterred, essentially transplanting his success in Mexico to greater Asia. His Kick-Off approach addressed technical, psychological and economic factors in such a way as to achieve rapid results (p. 81).

Innovation appears one of the greatest measures of abundance. During the 1969-1970 crop year, over 55 percent of the six million hectares sown to wheat in Pakistan and 35 percent of the fourteen million hectares in India were sown to Mexican varieties or their derivatives. Never before in the history of agriculture had a transplantation of high-yielding varieties, coupled with an entirely new technology and strategy, been achieved on such a massive scale in so short a period of time with such great success (p. 101).

Opposition? The critics comprised a broad spectrum, from academia to business to government organizations, from both the developed and developing nations (p. 102).

Key Success Factors | Leading Change

Borlaug's successes align well with Kotter's Leading Change model.

Establishing A Sense Of Urgency

When Borlaug first arrived at University, his off-campus observations caused him to be determined -- somehow -- to do what he could to improve the lot of fellow human beings pp. 17-18).

Forming A Powerful Guiding Coalition

In 1943 the Mexican Government-Rockefeller Foundation Cooperative Agricultural Program became America's first foreign agricultural assistance program (p. 32). This was only possible after years of success, and did not pre-ordain acceptance when expanding to 1968 Pakistan: Even the immutable stolid bureaucrats were slightly infected by the virus of change (p. 98).

Creating A Vision

Don't tell me what can't be done. Tell me what needs to be done -- and let me do it (p. 50). Borlaug early in a career arguing with a colleague resisting his plans.

Communicating The Vision/Planning For And Creating Short-Term Wins

Within a decade after arriving in Mexico as a thirty-year-old scientist, Borlaug had embarked on three innovations that formed the foundation of a wheat revolution in Mexico and ultimately fostered the Green Revolution in Asia (p. 41):

1) He painstakingly crossed thousands upon thousands of varieties and move forward with a few that were rust-resistant
2) He started "shuttle breeding" program that cut in half the time needed to get results, and;
3) He changed the architecture of the wheat plant from gangly tall to a short-strawed structure that was suitable for machine harvesting and was responsive to heavy applications of fertilizer without falling over.

Consolidating Improvements And Producing Still More Change

Borlaug sought an enduring, successful, program. An intensive intern-training component was an integral part of the research program, targeting a new generation of Mexican scientists even as they were assisting with the research program (p. 63). The development of a competent corps of Mexican agricultural scientists and scholars was the most valuable permanent contribution of the revolution in agriculture (p. 64). Trustees of El Centro Internacional de Mejoramente de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) stipulated that all its data and materials be available worldwide, to any country, free of charge (p. 73). CIMMYT crossed the Knowing-Doing Gap!

Institutionalizing New Approaches

The cooperative effort (Obregon research and seed program) in collaboration with Borlaug continued for twenty-seven years (p. 62).

Summary

Borlaug's dream, that this book: 

"Will serve as an inspiration to young people to devote thought,
energy and focused effort toward scientific and allied pursuits aimed
at alleviating hunger and poverty throughout the world." (p. xiii)