Leon Hesser, Ph.D.

Author

Visiting Scholar, Development Economics, Harvard University

Ph.D., Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

M.S., Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

B.S., Agribusiness, Purdue University

Leon Hesser went from being an Indiana farm boy to helping relieve world hunger. After earning a Ph.D. at Purdue, he served as Foreign Service Officer in Pakistan where he directed U.S. programs to increase food production in that hungry nation. Hesser and his team of American advisors introduced Dr. Norman Borlaug’s high-yielding varieties of wheat that started the Green Revolution in South Asia. Wheat production doubled in four years and relieved starvation, for which Dr. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

From Pakistan, Dr. Hesser was transferred to State Department in Washington, DC, where he directed America’s worldwide pro-grams to increase food production in developing countries. He managed five divisions–Crops, Livestock, Economics, Soil and Water Management, and Fisheries. He had a $50 million per year budget, which included between 75 and 80 contracts with U.S. Land Grant Universities to provide technical assistance overseas, on call.

Following early retirement from State Department, Dr. Hesser served as a consultant to some twenty countries in Asia, Africa, and the Former Soviet Union. He served on a World Bank project to Russia. He spent much of five years, from 1995 to 2000, in Ukraine where helped manage a U.S. Government Sponsored project to transform State-owned collective farms to private owner-ship by the workers on those farms.

Dr. Hesser is the author of several books, including:

“The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger” (2006; new edition: 2010). The biography received the following awards: Florida Writers Association First Place Biography Award; Florida Publishers Association Best Nonfiction Award; Best Books Award Winner by USA Book News; Book of the Year Award, American Farm Bureau Foundation.

“The Taming of the Wilderness: Indiana’s Transition from Indian Hunting Grounds to Hoosier Farmland: 1800 to 1875” (2002).

“Nurture the Heart, Feed the World: The Inspiring Life Journeys of Two Vagabonds” (2004).