How could Borlaug possibly think like you? He died 7 or 8 years ago
I've read his bio and he presented his reasoning for working at DuPont, start of WWII and for the Rockerfeller Foundation. I can't find the article now, but here's a similar one.
"From
1942 to
1944, Borlaug was employed as a
microbiologist at
DuPont in
Wilmington, Delaware. It was planned that he would lead research on industrial and agricultural
bacteriocides,
fungicides, and
preservatives. However, following the
December 7,
1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Borlaug tried to enlist in the military, but was rejected under wartime labor regulations; his lab was converted to do research for the
United States armed forces. One of his first projects was to develop
glue that could withstand the warm
saltwater of the
South Pacific. The
Imperial Japanese Navy had gained control of the island of
Guadalcanal, and patrolled the sky and sea by day. The only way that U.S. forces could supply the troops stranded on the island was by approaching at night by speedboat, and jettisoning boxes of canned food and other supplies into the surf to wash ashore. The problem was that the glue holding these containers together disintegrated in saltwater. Within weeks, Borlaug and his colleagues had developed an
adhesive that resisted
corrosion, allowing food and supplies to reach the stranded Marines. Other tasks included work with
camouflage,
canteen disinfectants, and insulation for small electronics.
[6]
In
1940, U.S.
Vice President Henry A. Wallace received a request by Mexican government officials for assistance in developing a program to train a new generation of Mexican agricultural scientists. The agrarian reforms that had been instituted following the
Mexican Revolution of
1910 had resulted in much lower yields, and the Mexican government feared their agricultural industry was being left behind. The U.S. government passed the program on to the
Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation contacted E.C. Stakman and two other leading agronomists. They developed a proposal for a new organization, the Office of Special Studies, as part of the Mexican Government, but under the direction of the Rockefeller Foundation. The organization was to be staffed with both U.S. and Mexican scientists, focusing on soil development, maize and wheat production, and plant pathology. Stakman chose Dr.
J. George "Dutch" Harrar as project leader. Harrar immediately set out to hire Borlaug as head of the newly-established Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in
Mexico; Borlaug declined, choosing to finish his war service at DuPont.
[7] In
July 1944, after rejecting DuPont's offer to double his salary, and temporarily leaving behind his
pregnant wife and 14 month old daughter, he flew to
Mexico City to head the new program as a
geneticist and
plant pathologist.
[6]
In
1964, he was made the director of the International Wheat Improvement Program at
El Batán,
Texcoco, on the eastern fringes of Mexico City, as part of the newly-established
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo, or CIMMYT), an autonomous international research training institute developed from the Cooperative Wheat Research Production Program, with funding jointly undertaken by the
Ford and
Rockefeller Foundations and the
Mexican government. Borlaug officially retired from the position in
1979; however, he remains a senior
consultant at the CIMMYT. Since his retirement, he has continued to be involved in plant research at CIMMYT with wheat,
triticale,
barley,
maize, and high-altitude
sorghum, in addition to taking up
charitable and educational roles."
Norman Borlaug - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
