UN mourns death of champion against hunger

(September 14, 2009) The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Sunday mourned the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman E. Borlaug, thanking him for being the agency's “great champion in the battle against hunger.” Borlaug, who died on Saturday, “saved more lives than any man in human history,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement. Called the father of the Green Revolution, “his total devotion to ending famine and hunger revolutionized food security for millions of people and for many nations,” she noted. The agronomist and humanitarian from the United States won the 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. “His heart was as big as his brilliant mind, but it was his passion and compassion that moved the world,” Sheeran said.