In the 1960s there was this growing fear of a “population bomb”. With medical advances ensuring that almost all children live to adulthood, the population exploded. Which was a great thing. Until people realized that there all these extra mouths to feed and just as much arable land as there was before. Panic set in and charts predicted that it will be twenty years until we can no longer feed everyone and be forced to resort to drastic measures.
Enter Norman Borlaug.
By genetically engineering food crops, like corn and wheat, Borlaug invented a way to produce far more food on just as much farmland as before. The crisis was solved and this unassuming Norwegian-American scientist quietly saved the world.