For, behind the scenes, halfway around the world in Mexico, were two decades of aggressive research on wheat that not only enabled Mexico to become self-sufficient with respect to wheat production but also paved the way to rapid increase in its production in other countries.

Later in his life he helped apply these methods of increasing food production to Asia and Africa. Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25 1914 – September 12 2009) was an American agronomist humanitarian and Nobel laureate who has been called "the father of the Green Revolution" and "The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives". He took up an agricultural research position in Mexico where he developed semi-dwarf high-yield disease-resistant wheat varieties.