Don Wirth, an innovative Oregon farmer and promoter of cover crops and forage in the United States and internationally, has been named the Agricultural Communicators Network (ACN) Distinguished Service Award recipient for 2023.

On a recent road trip through eastern Iowa, a detour to visit the boyhood home of Norman Borlaug, a pioneer in plant breeding who helped save millions around the world from hunger in the 1960s, served as a good reminder of the importance of technological developments in agriculture — and the need to reassess practices on an ongoing basis.

Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug rose from his childhood on an Iowa farm to develop a type of wheat that helped feed the world, fostering a movement that is credited with saving up to 1 billion people from starvation.