Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning plant scientist who died last week, will surely be remembered for his scientific contributions to the world. He developed a high-yielding wheat variety that brought food stability to Latin America and Asia. But I think all young Americans, scientists or not, can be inspired by his work ethic.

After winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, Borlaug could have felt satisfied in being the father of the Green Revolution, in which high crop yields averted famine. But he kept working tirelessly for the next four decades, trying to apply his expertise to areas originally untouched by the Green Revolution.

For example, as Latin America and Asia enjoyed booming food production in the 1960s, Africa remained desperate. Africa’s climate diversity made it impossible to directly transfer the fruits of the Green Revolution there. So Borlaug became president of the Sasakawa Africa Foundation in 1986, addressing the unique problems faced by African countries.

The message for young people is to never take for granted the consequences of your efforts. Go find the shortcomings of your efforts and work to overcome them, just as Borlaug did. As Borlaug’s Africa venture showed, addressing those gaps in your work may present new challenges that require a new way of thinking.

Another part of Borlaug’s drive to fight world hunger was his support for students’ engagement in global agriculture. He inspired the idea for The World Food Prize, which since 1986 has granted an annual award for outstanding work in world agriculture. What connects the World Food Prize to students is its Youth Institute, bringing together high school students each year for a conference with the top scientists and policymakers in international agriculture.

From 1984 until his death, Dr. Borlaug was a Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M University, inspring students to be leaders in world food security. “He regularly could be found in his office on campus in College Station advising students and providing counsel to fellow faculty members on research and scholarship,” according to AgriLife News, a communications service associated with Texas A&M.

Our Take

To me, teaching students to view agriculture from an international perspective helps erase their complacency. We in this country, especially in suburbs and cities, take our food security for granted. And even those concerned about global issues may assume that huge scientific breakthroughs will permanently fix problems in poor countries.

But as we saw with the high food prices of mid-2008, the world remains vulnerable to food shortages threatening to send millions more into poverty. If students—the next generation of world leaders—understand agriculture from an interdisciplinary angle, then we can take steps toward avoiding such disasters again. With the World Food Prize, Norman Borlaug certainly hammered home this key message.