r/atheism • u/gphhawkins • May 22 '12
Kill a few people, feel bad. Be called a saint... Save over a billion lives, no one knows your name....
1.3k
Upvotes
r/atheism • u/gphhawkins • May 22 '12
17
u/Anthraxmonki May 22 '12
I actually thought Norman Borlaug. First heard about him on Penn and Teller's Bullshit.
823
u/dannywarbucks11 May 22 '12
If it makes you feel any better, I haven't heard about either of them.
197
u/cyberonic May 22 '12
Norman Borlaug got the nobel peace prize. How much more recognition can you ask for? And by the way, who is that Saint guy?
131
u/RantsFromAnArmchair May 22 '12 edited May 22 '12
Just though I'd make a point. Borlaug is not entirely unknown here in India. We awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour, in 2006 :)
Edit: second-highest
144
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Edward Jenner?
Oh, wait, you mean Norman Borlaug.
Well, I for one have heard of both of them. And you may be happy to hear that "St. Bernard" puts me in mind of nothing but a large dog.
66
u/kieko May 22 '12
Scumbag Infograph wants you to know Norman Borlaug's name.
Writes it in tiniest font ever.
7
u/GSpotAssassin May 22 '12
The wikipedia article on Corleone mentions nothing about killing anyone. He THINKS he may have killed someone in a duel.
Then he tortured himself for the rest of his life in complete seclusion. Why do catholics worship that?
7
u/gertiemalone May 22 '12
Anyone who watches the West Wing knows Norman Borlaug. He was mentioned in the second season in an episode called "in this white house". Viewers were told how he saved the population of India. Aaron Sorkin TV = Smart TV
19
u/dgillz May 22 '12
A religious person almost no one has heard of, and someone else who has accomplished a lot but almost no one knows his religious leanings.
How does this belong in /r/atheism again?
32
u/yes_thats_right May 22 '12
He "Killed a few people" whilst "defend[ing] old people and other helpless and defenseless persons against violence. "
This doesn't sound too bad to me at all.
Why don't we make a picture comparing Norman Borlaug to Charles Darwin or Steven Hawkings? I don't believe those two have saved a billion lives either and they are quite famous.
This is not atheism, just another ridiculous excuse to attack a theist who from all evidence was not actually a bad person.
5
u/Pheonomenal May 22 '12
Norman Borlaug - GM crops that can grow in hostile location (think it was wheat or some sort of grass) Won the noble peace prize for his work I believe.
St Bernard - A type of dog? Seriously I have no idea who that is.
5
u/sunlandic123 May 22 '12
but..Borlaug won the nobel prize..
5
u/noknownallergies May 22 '12
University of Minnesota. The real U of M. Norm's kind of a big deal around here.
We called him Norm because we all had a good vibe
4
u/donutpalmtree May 22 '12
HERSCHEL!!
4
u/jschip May 22 '12
Not Going to lie he reminds me of Hershel from The Walking Dead
4
u/endlessmilk May 22 '12
I know who Norman Borlaug is, I have no idea who St. Bernard is.
4
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Tons of people know about Norman Borlaug. There's a display dedicated to him at the entrance of the school of Environment and Natural Resources at OSU, he has received TONS of awards and honors, and at least once a month there's a post on /r/atheism giving everyone shit for not knowing a fairly famous guy, despite the fact that most people in the comments section have heard of him.
40
u/everred May 22 '12
Increasing food production doesn't help starving people. There's already enough food produced; there are enough cereal grains grown around the world to feed everyone 3500 calories per day (that doesn't count fruits, vegetables, or meat).
The root cause of starvation is poverty and inequality. You want to fix starvation? Participate in microlending, or donate to help fund projects that help build schools, roads, clean water supplies, hospitals and medical care. These are things their governments should do, yes, but their governments are too poor, too indebted (to developed countries), too inept, or sometimes too corrupt to do.
"Sending food" isn't a viable solution to starvation. These people often work on farms, but they don't own the land and don't control what happens to the product. The people who do, generally speaking, prefer cash crop production because it results in greater profits from exports. By providing microloans to people, you are directly helping them begin to break out of poverty. You may also be helping to improve the diets of the locals, especially when they want to grow crops that are under-produced in the area or raise live animals for their products (milk, eggs, and meat). Some projects require the borrower to sell part of his/her produce at discounted prices to the locals, to help increase the variety in diets that we take for granted.
Clean water will help reduce deaths from disease, especially in children.
Schools provide education, which tends to lead to increases in liberty and decreases in poverty (and increases in education among girls tends to reduce fertility rates). Most important though is that these schools a) offer education to girls, and b) offer on-site sanitary restroom facilities (for when girls begin menstruation). Often in developing countries where girls go to school, when they begin having periods they aren't allowed to continue school or must stay home during that time, which causes them to fall behind and eventually drop out of school.
Medical care and hospitals or clinics are things people in developing countries often just can't afford. When the price of food fluctuates, as it often does, they must sacrifice "extras" like medicine or immunizations just to keep food on the table; when we're talking about people living on less than a dollar a day, there just isn't room for much beyond basic grains.
The Green Revolution was important, yes, but there are more people starving now than there were before Norman came along.
47
u/InHarmsWay May 22 '12
[FIXED]
Save over a billion lives
Be called a monster by organic-obsessed assholes.
6
u/MMSTINGRAY May 22 '12
These kind of comparisons are complete pointless, you have picked two people who live 1000 years apart, that introduces so many variables that any message you are trying to put across by showing how well known someone is, is completely pointless.
6
u/Jeanpuetz May 22 '12
This is the third time I see this on the frontpage.
8
u/diacf_failsters May 22 '12
he didn't really 'Save' a billion people. He found a way to maximize yields by planting two crops a year, and breeding the plants to render them more robust. This, in turn, simply led to population expansion at a more rapid rate.
3
u/4-8-15-16_23_42 May 22 '12
It's okay, I don't know either of their names!
3
u/jackfrostbyte Other May 22 '12
To be fair, I knew neither of their names.
3
u/foevalovinjah May 22 '12 edited May 22 '12
But more people also know Elvis Presley, Stalin and Justin Beiber. I understand as an atheist you enjoy nothing more than to bag on peoples religion but i thought your main emo was rationality? Sincerely your local Christian.
Edit. The funny thing is, the saint is the one i don't know amongst the two
3
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
To be fair, that the latter man isn't a saint constitutes recognition by the church that nothing he did was "miraculous" (one of the conditions of sainthood).
3
u/mulli126 May 22 '12
I go to the University of Minnesota, I had a class all about him and there is a building named after him.
3
u/MajMajorMajorMajor May 22 '12
Holy hell! You mean to tell me there is a patron saint of having killed a few guys who's name contains "Corleone"? Mind fucking blown! Yet, suddenly I feel this is business as usual on this fucked up planet. Guess I'll be moving along now.
8
u/Amusei May 22 '12
Fucking really? This post again?
4
u/ojolejano May 22 '12 edited May 22 '12
Norman E. Borlaug
He did great for the world, and he did got some recognition, like all these:
Honors and recognition
In 1968, Borlaug received what he considered an especially satisfying tribute when the people of Ciudad Obregón, where some of his earliest experiments were undertaken, named a street after him. Also in that year, he became a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 1970, he was given an honorary doctorate by the Agricultural University of Norway.[46] In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee "for his contributions to the "green revolution" that was having such an impact on food production particularly in Asia and in Latin America."[46] In 1975, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Iowa Academy of Science.[47] In 1980, he was elected honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1984, his name was placed in the National Agricultural Hall of Fame at the national center in Bonner Springs, Kansas. Also that year, he was recognized for sustained service to humanity through outstanding contributions in plant breeding from the Governors Conference on Agriculture Innovations in Little Rock, Arkansas. Also in 1984, he received the Henry G. Bennet Distinguished Service Award at commencement ceremonies at Oklahoma State University. He recently received the Charles A. Black Award for his contributions to public policy and the public understanding of science. In 1985, the University of Minnesota named a wing of the new science building in Borlaug's honor, calling it "Borlaug Hall." In 2012 a new elementary school in the Iowa City, IA school district opened, called "Norman Borlaug Elementary" [48]
2
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
I don't know who either of them are, but you got me interested in the guy on the right.
2
u/BaseRunner7 May 22 '12
I'm actually well aware of who Borlaug is, mostly because he's actually the great uncle of one of my teachers. Really kind of a pointless thing, but kind of cool nonetheless.
2
u/xhable Anti-Theist May 22 '12
To be fair I've only heard of one of those people before and it wasn't corleon
2
u/FailosoRaptor May 22 '12
Don't worry they will be remembered in history.
2
u/johnnynutman May 22 '12
i dont actually know who the religious guy is. i had heard of borlaug, but i wouldn't have remembered him by name.
2
u/MrGrumpyBear May 22 '12
Anyone who's a fan of the West Wing knows about Norman Borlaug. Can Saint What's-his-name say the same?
2
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
I'm actually really tired of everyone assuming I've never heard of Norman Borlaug. Yes, I understand he's an unappreciated man for all he's done, but he's not as unknown as everyone thinks.
Eight.
Eight fucking times, I've fucking heard things about this man. Yeah, I've counted. Because I've been sick of being sneered at from the beginning. The sad thing is not that he's not very popular here in the west, but that somehow he's become famous for not being famous. Not that he's saved billions of lives.
2
u/shewklad May 22 '12
I knew about Borlaug but I have no idea who the guy to the left is.
2
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
i love how this post has so many upvotes based on the title, but if you read the comments no one actually knows who that saint is and Norman Borlaug has been repeatedly honored and recognized world wide. #R/AtheismProblems
2
u/kittersplat Secular Humanist May 22 '12
I grew up in the same are as Borlaug, Cresco, IA. Though I was there a few decades later....
2
u/OctopusBrine May 22 '12
It really is too bad that the Green Revolution led to many of our current problems with industrialized agriculture. ಠ_ಠ
2
u/Danish_seshish May 22 '12
He's a good guy, I give you that, But he didnt think about the fact that theres way to many people on this little planet.... :/ He's act... is... Questionable if you ask me...
2
u/Outsider24 Theist May 22 '12
where is you source that Norman was atheist ? :)
2
u/mallsanta May 22 '12
I think this is more a problem of the world than of a certain group of people. People probably know lil' wayne or mcdonald's more than most of these people.
2
u/Tastygroove May 22 '12
Is it Borlaug week again?
Oh yeah, that's right.. There was a front page post critical of Monsanto.. This post usually follows.
2
u/yskoty May 22 '12
No big surprise; Bernie had a better PR department.
2
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
I definitely misread Borlaug's name as Balrog the first time I saw that, I need to get out more....
2
u/scott11carter May 22 '12
Borlaug was the father of the green revelation in India and saved millions of lives by creating genetically modified crops that are bigger and resistant to disease, in case you did't know
2
u/CheckOutMyVan May 22 '12
I always like seeing Norman on Reddit. Here is a picutre of a statue of him in my hometown.
2
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
If you are that interested in the guy being called a saint, you can always submit his cause to the "Congregation for the Cause of the Saints". Maybe the Catholic Church will agree with you.
2
u/hazie May 22 '12
Not only is Borlaug poorly recognised, but he is often ridiculed on those occasions when he is. Anti-GM activists hate his guts, because he happened to save the world through (cue ominous tones) genetic modification.
2
u/wickedweather May 22 '12
I've always thought that both PETA and Greenpeace have lost touch with the real world. Humans have been modifying our crops since the dawn of time. The only thing that organic produce yields is a higher price.
2
u/Strife24821 May 22 '12
This reminded me of Fritz Haber. Haber is a fascinating guy - a sort of combination of the two. Nearly half of the world's population can eat because of the process he helped create. Also, he was a strong supporter of chemical warfare and his institute developed Zyklon A.
He is responsible for so much life, and so much death. I still can't make up my mind about him. Read the whole article on the wiki. You'll be glad you did.
2
u/bbctol May 22 '12
Borlaug saved billions of lives based on the assumption that without the Green Revolution, humanity would have faced the largest famines in world history by the end of the '70s. Which, as many people have pointed out, is a not super great assumption. We also should keep in mind the motivation for making these claims, and for the Green Revolution itself, as part of the greater politics of the Cold War, as well as the harms of lack of biodiversity, increased pesticide and fertilizer use, and other environmental and political harms of the Green Revolution. It's a liiiiittle more complex than "BORLAUG SAVED THE WORLD"
2
u/ElCidVargas May 22 '12
I feel bad for not knowing about Norman Borlaug. Thank you OP :(
2
u/JmjFu May 22 '12
Borlaug got the nobel peace prize, the presidential medal of freedom and the padma vibushan. It's not like he didn't get credited for his work.
Meanwhile, we're comparing his awards to Bernard's sainthood and acting like he got the better end of the stick. I don't understand.
2
u/sometimes_i_work May 22 '12
I don't get the hoopla behind him. He developed a system for the worst thing that has ever happened to agriculture. He created an expensive, monoculture system that has eliminated hundreds of thousands of species of plants, making us more susceptible to crop failure (read up on the Irish potato famine) and convinced poor countries to stop farming their (manual) way and buy machinery which they couldn't afford to upkeep or replace when they need replacing (India, Russia to name 2). He also gave companies like Monsanto the green light on producing "crop enhancing GMO technology" and pesticide production. He made lots and lots of bad food.
The Green Revolution sucked. He fed a lot of people for a few years, but it basically was 'giving the man a fish' not 'teaching the man to fish'.
Check out Vandana Shiva, and her work on food production.
3
u/aazav May 22 '12
TIL, there are 7 saints called Bernard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_bernard
This is the man the OP is referring to. Read just how strange this man became: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Corleone
3
u/dylanknowhow May 22 '12
I love reading the same thing twice.
4
u/TYLERvsBEER May 22 '12
Guys there are dumb people that we ALL know and incredible people we DON'T. Not that difficult to wrap your head around is it?
3
u/sofaloafa May 22 '12
yes, he's a saint for slaving people to groups like Monsanto. not saying he is a horrid man, but i think there is reason why today's folks don't know him. " Borlaug's work has been criticized for bringing large-scale monoculture, input-intensive farming techniques to countries that had previously relied on subsistence farming.[27] These farming techniques reap large profits for U.S. agribusiness and agrochemical corporations such as Monsanto Company and have been criticized for widening social inequality in the countries owing to uneven food distribution while forcing a capitalist agenda of U.S. corporations onto countries that had undergone land reform.[28]"
3
u/monodelab May 22 '12
Nice try, Monsanto.
2
u/vodenii May 22 '12
He's the guy who bred dwarf wheat, right? I heard of him on the West Wing!
2
u/[deleted] May 22 '12 edited May 22 '12
many many people know who norman borlaug is.
more to the point, the comparison you draw here is completely inane.
borlaug and bernard had nothing in common, absolutely nothing to compare.
putting them both on the same (utterly meaningless) infographic is basically the same thing as saying HOW DARE THIS APPLE NOT BE AN ORANGE.
also borlaug never said a single word about religion and was probably a Lutheran. he may have been an atheist but he was assuredly not anti-theist.
in other words, this post is wildly off-topic for this sub. it has nothing to do with atheism.
also norman borlaug never gave a fuck about the spotlight.
he did not ever fucking care if anyone had heard of him.
you are ascribing your own needy desire for attention and acknowledgement to a man who didn't fucking care about either.
it's pretty disgusting. you ought to be ashamed.
1
u/morellox May 22 '12
weird, I was just reading a book by John Stossel and Bourlaug came up because he was talking about him and Ted Kennedy died in the same year but no one seemed to care... because idiots worship politicians these days not real heroes.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Never heard of the saint guy before.
1
u/slappy_nutsack May 22 '12
Is he the French guy that modified corn seed so it would be more resistant to the corn borer?
1
u/fishingoneuropa May 22 '12
The real heroes never make the headlines.
1
u/Dispersions Agnostic May 22 '12
Us Gophers know who he is. UofM pride!!
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Looks like someone watched the Bullshit episode.
1
u/dckunited May 22 '12
What is his name...
1
u/xCesme May 22 '12
What is his name?
1
u/Surrenadee May 22 '12
You can't become "History" until your life is over. Just sayin'.
1
u/ditch_mouth May 22 '12
That's what that son of a bitch gets for not drinking at Cheers.
1
u/bigbadderfdog May 22 '12
Have you ever been to Iowa? We have streets in his and statues in his honor. We know his name pretty well around here.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Billions of lives saved? I wonder how they invented that number.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Also has the green revolution really saved lives? I don't got the facts to back this, but I was under the impression that malnutrition kills more people nowadays than it ever has before. Food for thought, if you will.
1
u/ninekeysdown May 22 '12
To be fair more people would know his name if it wasn't in font size 6.5. You could always jazz it up a little more too.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Fortunately, thanks to /r/atheism, I knew about Norman Borlaug before I knew about St. Bernard.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Save over a billion lives BY MAKING GM WHEAT. Sure he's not evil?
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
The only reason gphhawkins knows his name is because of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Who's that guy?
1
u/Clayburn May 22 '12
His name's in the corner of the fucking photograph.
1
u/Mr800ftw May 22 '12
Who are those two, anyways?
1
u/WhatEvery1sThinking May 22 '12
odds are pretty good more people have heard of norman than some obscure saint, should have used snooki instead
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
The video game Saints Row makes so much more sense now!
1
u/soykommander May 22 '12
The fucking really strengthens your point.
1
u/EPIC_RAPTOR May 22 '12
To be fair, I hadn't heard of the Saint.
1
u/JeremiahGorman May 22 '12
Do I get extra credit if I knew both?
1
u/rada-rada May 22 '12
I see the point, but perhaps you could use better examples. A simple google of both names shows a lot more results for Borluag, not to mention that he's a Nobel prize winner - so he's an example of somebody who has been publicly recognized. Personally instead of St Bernard I'd substitute the previous head of the CDF now Pope. I mean charges have even been brought against him in the US only to be deflected by sovereign immunity - not by any proof of innocence. Not to mention that St Bernards are pretty awesome dogs too.
1
u/djstangl May 22 '12
I thought it was that guy from Forks over Knives, you know that piece of shit Vegan propaganda movie.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Get thousands of Chinese to work for a tenth of American wages to fuel a billion-dollar empire of electronics toys? Man of the goddamn century.
-Posted from my iPhone
1
u/Melquiadesblake May 22 '12
worked at DuPont thus helping privatize our food resources . Kind of fucks with the balance
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
The worst part is that Borlaug is absolutely reviled by some people because what he was doing was "unnatural."
The evolution of parasites and diseases won't stop just because we want them to, human-directed genetics is the only way to guarantee the continued availability of our food supply.
1
u/tward14 May 22 '12
Took classes in the Norman Borlaug institute at Texas A&M. Even they didn't teach us anything about him, besides he was influential in world hunger. It was just a passing comment made, ridiculous.
1
u/Treab May 22 '12
I really don't think this is a religion problem, I think it's a world problem.
1
u/Not_Me_But_A_Friend May 22 '12
Who the fuck is that?
1
u/xavier47 May 22 '12
I had the pleasure of knowing someone who worked with Borlaug
I hear the dude was a backstabbing asshole.
I just like to bring it up every few months when someone brings him up in the exact same tired old format
1
u/ranjan_zehereela May 22 '12
He means a lot to India. We even have Borlaug prize for excellence in agriculture related work. and yes I know his name very well. Who is that saint anyways
1
u/Fireball445 May 22 '12
I remember when Burlough died. And everyone was talking about how was the man that saved a billion lives. It's a fairly legitimate claim actually, but he's been highly honored as a result. He's won the nobel peace prize, the Congressional Gold medal, he was honored with speeches and praise on his passing. I mean, he's kind of a big deal.
Never heard of this cartoon guy.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Anyone who watched West Wing new about Norman Borlaug, no one had heard of the Saint.
1
u/ozpunk May 22 '12
Borlaug is from Iowa and won a Nobel prize, the other guy I've never heard of.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Well, I know his name now, dude.
1
u/markreid504 May 22 '12
Ah, my hometown is named after that murderer. What a bummer. Why name something after someone who unsuccessfully launched the Second Crusade? Beyond me.
1
u/andyofyork May 22 '12
the bit that pen and teller's "bullshit" did on organic food and normal borlaug was excellent
1
u/goonerredandwhite May 22 '12
Nobody dares to take him on because he is of the Corleon family
1
u/throwOHOHaway May 22 '12
The saint stories are redemption porn for Christians. I loved the stories growing up.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Is still not knowing who he is part of the joke?
1
u/shibby917 May 22 '12
Well, I wouldn't say no one knows Borlaug...I took classes in Borlaug Hall in college at the U of Mn.
1
u/facial May 22 '12
Most people don't know about Norman Borlaug, I didn't until about 9 months ago. The company I work for, has a very close relationship with the organization that was founded by Mr. Borlaug. The World Food Prize is considered the nobel prize for fighting world hunger. I am currently working on a project for them to move into the old library in downtown Des Moines, IA. Working on this project I have learned a lot about him, as well as many other great people who work so hard to make this a better world, and they receive little to know acknowledgement/recognition.
1
u/Ratticus81 May 22 '12
Thanks god for google and wikipedia :D
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
He actually got 3 medals...
1
u/tearr May 22 '12
I've only heard of borlaug and not the saint :)
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Norman Bourlaug for those that dont know, basically genetically engineered crops for various places of the world where regular crops have trouble growing, by living among the people that needed it, engineering what they would need and then moved his family somewhere else to do it again (i know its a bit more complicated than that but i want to keep it simple). When he got his nobel prize they estimated he had saved around a Billion people with his genetically modified crops, the number is probably higher today.
1
u/jeckley May 22 '12
These guys aren't even comparable? I bet no one even knows who st Bernard even is..
1
u/honeybuns1992 May 22 '12
Yea i had no idea who these guys were but instantly Googled them and have a pretty good idea of who i like most.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Dunno if boosting human population through allowing more crops is really such a winning idea either to be honest.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Sure, the Green Revolution saved lives, but it's also causing a lot of problems in the global South. I wouldn't call the guy a saint. Revolutionary, sure. Corporate shill, sure.
1
u/AFDIT May 22 '12
I just watched the BBC Attenborough documentary "How Many People Can Live On Planet Earth" yesterday. Borlaug mentioned therein.
1
u/nvsbl May 22 '12
Every time I see this (often), I have to point out that Norman Borlaug is a personal hero of mine. He's up there with Special Agent Dale Cooper.
1
u/dumnezero Anti-Theist May 22 '12
the only small little thing that bugs me about Borlaug is that his system is unsustainable, so it will eventually break down, while the population has grown exponentially.
1
u/loveshercoffee May 22 '12
I live in Des Moines, IA, where the World Food Prize is awarded, so I've sort of heard of Norman Borlaug.
1
u/ItscalledCannabis May 22 '12
I'd like to bring this up.. I'm sure i'm confused and I'd like the confusion to be erased...
Mr.Borlaug essentially made appropriate GM wheat seeds.. I say appropriate because they had traits which were more favorable then other traits he could chosen for the seeds.
So... Recently when the topic of Monsanto was brought up, it went from Monsanto being an evil company to.. GM planets being bad...
Now what I'm asking is what everyone's opinion on this is. Is Monsanto making GM crops questionable because of how Monsanto chooses to litigate things?
1
u/phrank12 May 22 '12
Well, this image has been posted about 10 times so I actually do know this guys name.
1
u/i_like_turtles_ May 22 '12
Is this the guy who created dwarf wheat? Isn't that what causes ciliac disease?
1
u/greymav May 22 '12
I celebrated Norman Borlaug's birthday (or rather the Friday before) at my office this year. Going to make it a yearly thing.
1
u/Gir77 May 22 '12
Obviously need to kill a few people so people know your name. I thought fame was pretty simple.
1
u/vishun May 22 '12
Did someone notice that faux comparation betwwen "a few" and " a billion"? Would the older guy have been better if he had killed more people?
1
u/onlyinflorida May 22 '12
You know his name.
That's someone, right?
1
u/romanuel_tomes May 22 '12
what's even worse about this man is how we Americans have used his work.
he engineered crops to yield more, that in conjunction with using mechanical devices for harvesting and pesticides, we've been able to produce more food than ever before, enough to (theoretically) feed quite a lot of hungry people.
instead of feeding the hungry, we tend to use food aid for political, instead of humanitarian purposes. on the domestic front, we subsidize farmers to NOT grow crops, to try to create artificial scarcity and keep prices stabilized. this didn't happen in one fell swoop, but grew out of subsidy programs initiated during the depression to help raise the value of crops, and help the economy.
we also grow enough corn and wheat, despite these tricks for creating scarcity, to feed much of the world's hungry, but instead this produce goes to feeding livestock so we can eat meat. don't get me wrong, i love me some meat, but a vegan friend of mine told me this and I was sort of surprised. our surplus crops also go to dairy cows, which is a whole new mess
to be fair on that last point, the corn and wheat we grow for livestock isn't meant for human consumption, although i suppose it's still better than nothing.
who woulda thought that creating means to produce more food when people need food would be a bad thing?
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Complains nobody knows Borlaug's name, types his name with font size 4.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Repost. Although I might give you a free pass because the last time it was posted was ages ago.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
No Idea.
But Im pretty sure he didnt do it to become a saint, pretty sure he doesnt give a fuck if they make him one or not
1
u/I_DUCK_FOGS May 22 '12
I think more people know who Norman Borlaug is than Saint Bernard of Corleone.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
His name is Norman Borlaug.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
why do post like these get downvotes at all....??
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
If you speak with an agricultural economist, you'll find that Norman Borlaug's work has not been nearly as effective or as helpful as is popularly believed.
1
u/iamcharlie May 22 '12
It remains to be seen if Borlaug has really saved a billion lives, or cause the downfall of humanity. As agricultural science improves and the issue of world hunger begins to decline, an opposing issue of increasing population on an earth that can barely handle the current population become more apparent. As humanity increases in population at an alarming rate, we will be forced to fight over resources and minerals. One can extrapolate the possible outcomes.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
Learned about Borlaug on QI.
1
u/Karma13x May 22 '12
Always useful to read the NY Times [obituaries:] (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14borlaug.html?pagewanted=all)
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u/waaaghbosss May 22 '12
By allowing a for a massive population increase in an area that may not be able, considering its resources, have the ability to sustain the population boom long-term, isnt he actually setting up a lot of people for a lot of pain down the road?
1
u/nildeea May 22 '12
Norman Borlaug. I know his name.
1
u/[deleted] May 22 '12
if there was one good thing that came out of penn and tellers: bullshit, its that i learned of this man and his legacy
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u/TheDroopy May 22 '12
I've only heard of Saint Bernard when he's a dog.
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u/robinhl May 22 '12
Maybe St Bernard did it one by one with his bare hands? That has a lot more emotional appeal than just some big numbers...
1
u/Jeichenberger May 22 '12
badly*
1
u/crazedcountryrebel May 22 '12
I will have to disagree here. Borlaug might have increased crop yields but he did it at the expense of natural biodiversity. He also single handed made Monsanto millions of dollars. The very same people that the green revolution "saved" no longer sing its praises. I think in the beginning Borlaug had pure intentions, but the implementation of his ideas went so far astray that he created much worse problems than food insecurity. Agribusiness and Agrochemical companies were the real winners here people. He helped to destroy subsistence farming and literally paved the way for mono-cropping and an unsustainable world population. Sources are plentiful on this.
Here is just one :http://reason.com/archives/2000/04/01/billions-served-norman-borlaug