Norman Borlaug never cured a disease, yet he is credited with saving as many as a billion lives from starvation. This deep dive follows the Iowa farm boy who failed his university entrance exam, wrestled at the University of Minnesota, witnessed hunger during the Great Depression, and turned to plant pathology after a lecture on crop-destroying rust.

We explore his wartime saltwater-resistant adhesive, his work in Mexico with shuttle breeding, multi-line varieties and semi-dwarf wheat, and the chaotic shipment of seeds to India and Pakistan amid war. We also weigh his 1970 Nobel Peace Prize warning, the Borlaug hypothesis, criticism from Vandana Shiva and others over debt and environmental damage, and why his efforts in Africa ran into missing infrastructure.

• How shuttle breeding broke wheat’s photoperiod sensitivity
• Multi-line varieties as a genetic firewall against disease
• Semi-dwarf wheat and the problem of lodging
• The Green Revolution in South Asia and his warning about population
• The environmental and social critiques of his methods