10 Forgotten Historical Figures You Didn't Know Changed Your Life

Norman Borlaug led the Green Revolution, an initiative using research and sharing of information to increase world crop yields. In the process he is credited with saving a billion people from starvation.

Working for the Rockefeller Foundation's Mexico hunger project in the 1940s and 50s, Borlaug sought to develop varieties of wheat that were resistant to disease, could thrive in a variety of climates, and produced a high crop yield.

Using genetic manipulation and high doses of fertiliser Borlaug created dwarf wheat, which combined large grain heads with short, sturdy stalks.

By 1956 Mexico was self-sufficient in wheat. Dwarf wheat was introduced into India and Pakistan in the mid-1960s: in 1968 the wheat crop in India was so great schools had to be used as temporary granaries.

Borlaug's work led to a similar project in the Philippines using rice; Chinese researchers followed suit. Meanwhile Borlaug extended his project to Columbia, Chile, Brazil and Ecuador.

There are many questions as to Borlaug's legacy, there is a pretty unsubstantiated claim that the rise in coeliacs around the world is caused by genetically modified wheat, predicated on Borlaug's work.

If this is even the case, just eat the gluten free bread and stop complaining, he saved a billion lives.