Borlaug dies

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From: Doug Powell
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:47:17 -0500
To: BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU<BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU>
Subject: [BITES-L] bites Sept. 13/09

bites Sept. 13/09

TEXAS: Nobel laureate, Iowa native Borlaug dies

UK: More children at threat from E coli outbreak at Godstone petting farm

UK: Farm defends response to E.coli

NEW YORK: Study explains bacteria's resistance to antibiotics

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TEXAS: Nobel laureate, Iowa native Borlaug dies
12.sep.09
Des Moines Register
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090912/NEWS/90913001/-1/LIFE04
The New York Times
Justin Gillis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14borlaug.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
Norman Borlaug, the Iowa farm boy who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his efforts to feed the world's hungry, died Saturday night at his home in Dallas, Texas. He was 95.

Borlaug died just before 11 p.m. from complications of cancer, Kathleen Phillips, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman, told the Associated Press. Phillips said Borlaug's granddaughter told her about his death. Borlaug was a distinguished professor at the university in College Station.


A self-described "corn-fed, country-bred Iowa boy," Borlaug was called "the Father of the Green Revolution" for his work developing high-yielding strains of wheat that were credited with staving off the starvation of millions of people in Pakistan and India in the 1960s.

 It has been said that Borlaug saved more lives than any other person in history, said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, which Borlaug founded in 1986.

Borlaug, hailed by U.S. and world leaders over the past four decades, was one of five people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. The others: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel and Nelson Mandela.


"Thanks to Dr. Borlaug's pioneering work to develop varieties of high-yielding wheat, countless millions of men, women and children, who will never know his name, will never go to bed hungry," former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in 2007 when Borlaug received the Congressional Gold Medal.


"Dr. Borlaug's scientific breakthroughs have eased needless suffering and saved countless lives (and) have been an inspiration to new generations across the globe who have taken up the fight against hunger.
"

Borlaug had suffered from lymphoma and other ailments that had caused him to be in and out of the hospital in recent years, Quinn said.

 Yet Borlaug maintained an ambitious travel schedule into his 90s, continuing to teach at Texas A&M and work for the International Center for the Improvement of Wheat and Maize, where he did his breeding work that led to the Nobel Peace Prize.

He also spoke out for an equitable distribution of the world's food and the threat of unchecked population growth. He supported using agricultural biotechnology to combat global hunger and malnutrition and frequently criticized environmentalists he derisively called "greenies."


"I feel obligated as a scientist to speak out," he told The Des Moines Register in 1997. "They can't hurt me now. They can't fire me; I'm too old. But if some young scientist said what I've just said, they'd fire him."

Norman Ernest Borlaug was born in 1914 on his grandparents' farm 11 miles southwest of Cresco. 

The son of Henry O. and Clara Borlaug, he had two sisters, Palma and Charlotte. When he was 8, the Borlaugs moved to their own 56-acre farm near the Norwegian community of Saude in northeast Chickasaw County — a town that no longer exists .
Borlaug attended a one-room school near his farm home, with one teacher instructing him through the eighth grade.

Borlaug attended Cresco High School, graduating in 1932. He went to the University of Minnesota, where he earned a bachelor's degree in forestry in 1937. At Minnesota, he met his future wife, Margaret Gibson, a native of Oklahoma. 

After working in Idaho and Massachusetts on forestry projects, he returned to the university and earned his doctorate in 1941 in plant pathology.

From 1941 to 1944, Borlaug was a plant pathologist for DuPont in Wilmington, Del. But in October 1944, he went to Mexico to work at the Rockefeller Foundation's International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center.


There, Borlaug worked on developing wheat with a sturdy, short stalk that could hold the high-yielding grain on top. He also built resistance to a fungal disease called "wheat stem rust" into the "miracle wheat."


After Borlaug developed his miracle wheat, Mexico became a wheat exporter and, in the 1960s, the wheat was sent to India and Pakistan, which used the grain to feed their starving populations.


Other nations in Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East also adopted miracle wheat to feed their people.

Borlaug's success earned him a new nickname: "the apostle of wheat."

When it was announced in 1970 that Borlaug had won the Nobel Peace Prize, he was working in experimental fields 50 miles from Mexico City.
At first, Borlaug thought the report that he had won the Nobel was a joke, and he had to be persuaded to return to the city for a news conference. When he arrived, he was wearing his work clothes, with dust on his shoes and dirt on his hands.


"I wanted to show the TV men what makes an agricultural scientist — dirty hands," he said. "I washed them later."

 Joking aside, Borlaug explained what excited him most about winning the Nobel Prize.

"Seventy percent of the people of the world make their living from agriculture," he said, "and this is the first time agricultural science and the application of it have been given recognition.
The Green Revolution eventually came under attack from environmental and social critics who said it had created more difficulties than it had solved. Dr. Borlaug responded that the real problem was not his agricultural techniques, but the runaway population growth that had made them necessary.
"If the world population continues to increase at the same rate, we will destroy the species," he declared.
Dr. Borlaug's later years were partly occupied by arguments over the social and environmental consequences of the Green Revolution. Many critics on the left attacked it, saying it displaced smaller farmers, encouraged overreliance on chemicals and paved the way for greater corporate control of agriculture.
In a characteristic complaint, Vandana Shiva, an Indian critic, wrote in 1991 that "in perceiving nature's limits as constraints on productivity that had to be removed, American experts spread ecologically destructive and unsustainable practices worldwide."
Dr. Borlaug declared that such arguments often came from "elitists" who were rich enough not to worry about where their next meal was coming from. But over time, he acknowledged the validity of some environmental concerns, and embraced more judicious use of fertilizers and pesticides. He was frustrated throughout his life that governments did not do more to tackle what he called "the population monster" by lowering birth rates.

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UK: More children at threat from E coli outbreak at Godstone petting farm
13.sep.09
Times Online
Valerie Elliott
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6832800.ece
Thousands of children across the South of England may be at risk from the E. coli bug in what looks to be the largest UK outbreak linked to transmission from farm animals.
Godstone Farm in Surrey, a popular family attraction where children are encouraged to stroke and touch animals, is closed while the Health Protection Agency (HPA) conducts tests to find out the cause of the outbreak which has left 12 children in hospital, four of them in a serious condition.
Thirty-six cases, including some adults, have been reported by GPs.
The bacteria, which is passed through animal faeces, causes sickness and diarrhoea, but prolonged bouts of illness can lead to kidney failure, with young children and the elderly most at risk.
All the children in hospital are under the age of 10.
Health chiefs have issued guidance that anyone who visited the farm after August 8 and who is suffering sickness or diarrhoea should seek medical help.
About 1,000 children, mainly from South London, Surrey, Kent and Sussex, visit the farm every day during the school holidays and at weekends. It is feared that 30,000 children could be at risk of infection.
There are concerns that infection could spread within families and in school playgrounds.
Professor Hugh Pennington, the country's leading microbiologist and expert on E. coli 0157, said that the incident was the largest he had known in the UK.
He said it would have been difficult for health chiefs to pinpoint the source of infection given the spread of patients across such a large area.
The bacteria was carried in animal faeces but could easily be picked up on the ground and on children's shoes, especially after the heavy rain this summer, he added. The bug can live for weeks.
Godstone Farm is popular because it gives children the chance to stroke and touch animals in their pens.
Jackie Flaherty, who has run the farm for 29 years, said she was devastated by the incident and was doing everything possible to help health officials to make the farm safe.
A spokeswoman for the HPA defended its handling of the outbreak. It took two to three weeks to incubate the bug and even if a patient was seen by a GP it took a futher two days for samples to be tested by a laboratory, she said.
The HPA was aware of a first case on August 27 and Godstone Farm was suspected as a possible source of the outbreak. Environmental health officials from the local council contacted the farm on August 28 warning they may be implicated in a case. Extra notices were put up warning people to wash hands. But as the number of cases grew, enforcement officers visited the farm on September 3 and advised that all direct contact and petting of animals should cease. The farm, which also has a playground and barns used for children's birthday parties, was allowed to remain open. On September 5, as more cases were confirmed, the HPA advised it should close.
Mrs Flaherty said: "We have followed advice throughout. We are mystified by the outbreak, but we don't think it is our lambs. They were moved to fields and out of the pens before August. But we do allow children to touch calves and pygmy goats. We have five hand washbasins around the farm and lots of signs telling people to wash their hands. Our priority now is to make the farm safe. It has meant we have had to disappoint some children and cancel birthday parties. I felt mean, but there was no option."
Mrs Flaherty owns a similar venture, Horton Park Farm, near Epsom, which attracts about 700 to 800 people a day. It was open and crowded today.

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UK: Farm defends response to E.coli
13.sep.09
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/8252989.stm
The managers of a children's farm in Surrey linked to a string of E.coli cases have defended their response to the outbreak.
Twelve children are in hospital - four seriously ill - after contracting the bug at Godstone Farm near Redhill.
The farm has been closed while the Health Protection Agency carries out an investigation.
One parent has expressed her anger, saying the decision for the farm to remain open was an "absolute disgrace".
But farm manager Richard Oatway said the farm had acted responsibly and was co-operating with the investigation.
He said: "All the staff at the farm are very upset about the E.coli outbreak and we hope that all the children make a full and speedy recovery. We have taken the decision to close the farm until the authorities have finished their investigations. These have been very thorough and are still ongoing. We will not reopen the farm until we are satisfied that we have got to the root of the problem and have put in place suitable control measures. Our main priority has always been to make sure the farm is safe for everyone who comes here to visit. We have co-operated fully with all the authorities from the very beginning and will of course continue to do so."
Claire Blackwell said when she took her children to the farm on 9 September she had no idea there was anything wrong.
She said: "Whoever took the decision not to shut the farm earlier was completely in the wrong. If there was a notice as we drove in I wouldn't have got out of the car."
It has emerged health officials knew about the outbreak among people who visited the farm days before it was closed to the public.
The Health Protection Agency became aware of the outbreak in late August after cases were traced to the farm.
The farm, which is a popular destination for families, was closed when a pattern was established as the number of infected children rose.
All the sick children are aged under 10. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) says 36 cases have been reported so far.
The outbreak is believed to have started on 8 August. The bacteria causes diarrhoea and can lead to kidney failure, especially in young children. It is fatal in very rare cases.
HPA spokesman Dr Graham Bickler said it was one of the largest outbreaks seen in the UK.

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NEW YORK: Study explains bacteria's resistance to antibiotics
13.sep.09
AFP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jbBIAufNyKV0owj4rc08LmSA5GKg
WASHINGTON -- A small molecule composed of one atom of oxygen and one of nitrogen plays an important role in helping pathogens resist antibiotics, a new study has found.
The study, led by Evgeny Nudler, professor of biochemistry at New York University Langone Medical Center, and published in Science magazine, provides evidence that nitric oxide (NO) is able to alleviate stress in bacteria caused by many antibiotics and helps it neutralize many antibacterial compounds.
"Developing new medications to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria ... is a huge hurdle, associated with great cost and countless safety issues," Nudler said in a statement.
"Here, we have a short cut, where we don't have to invent new antibiotics. Instead, we can enhance the activity of well established ones, making them more effective at lower doses."
Nitric oxide was initially known as a toxic gas and air pollutant until 1987 when a study that won a Nobel Prize showed that it played a physiological role in mammals.

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