Lester R. Brown Biography

Lester Russell Brown is an American environmental thinker and analyst who founded the famous Earth Policy Institute, a non-profit research institute in Washington. Lester was brought up in a farm which had neither running water nor electricity. He was an avid reader and a farming enthusiast who encouraged his brother to start a tomato business which eventually grew as one of the largest in New Jersey. He got a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University. It was during his six-month stay in rural India, as part of the International Farm Youth Exchange Program, that he became aware of issues like the intimate connection of food and population. To do something substantial, Lester knew he would need the help of FAS or Foreign Agricultural Service. He decided to get a degree in agricultural economics and joined FAS in the Asia branch. Soon after, he also earned the degree in public administration and four years later, he published his revolutionary work Man, Land and Food. Lester’s analysis earned him the attention of Orville Freeman, the Secretary of Agriculture, who asked him to find a solution to the problem. All through his career, Brown has emphasized on the geopolitical effects of the ever-increasing price of grains. His main concern has been the acute shortage of food in poor countries