Borlaug; Volume 2, Wheat Whisperer 1944-1959
Noel Vietmeyer earned a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California. During a long career at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. he produced over 30 books describing innovations that can benefit Africa, Asia and Latin America.Vietmeyer was also a prolific freelance writer, producing some 200 articles for publications such as National Geographic, Reader's Digest, Smithsonian, Encyclopaedia Britannica, World Book, International Wildlife and Ranger Rick.His quarter-century of National Academy of Sciences service was noteworthy for the discovery of tropical crops that were little known to science but that possessed qualities for helping the world's poor nations. It was through this work that Vietmeyer met Norman Borlaug, who graciously agreed to chair several of the review panels the NAS appointed to make the final calls on certain extremely fast-growing trees, nutritious food crops, potentially valuable industrial crops and vegetative environmental supports that stabilize tropical lands.Off and on over the years, the two traveled together, and Borlaug eventually related roughly 300 personal experiences. They included life-and-death adventures as well as coincidences, escapes from financial disaster, squabbles with those who disagreed with his methods (virtually everyone), and farmers who many times came to the rescue just as his program was about to be axed.These stories make up the heart and soul of this multivolume biography of the mild-mannered maverick who fed a billion people.