Dr. Norman Borlaug, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, has spent his life battling against hunger and poverty in developing countries. With characteristic energy and a sense or urgency, he is setting the agenda for a "Green Revolution " in Sub-Saharan Africa as population increases overwhelm production.

Borlaug grew up on a small farm in Iowa during the Depression years and trained as an agricultural scientist. He developed a lifelong determination to use science for the benefit of subsistence farmers. The film charts his struggle against third world poverty, using footage shot in Africa and Mexico over the last thirty years. In Mexico after World War II Borlaug designed a simple approach for intensifying traditional agriculture that had dramatic results. It saved India and Pakistan from a repetition of the dreadful famine of the 1960's.

Often embroiled in politics in his determination to put agriculture at the top of the agenda, he has also crossed swords with some environmentalists, who he felt had little understanding of life in developing countries. His faith as always been in small -scale farmers who are "setting the grassroots on fire."

African Studies Association, 2000