The Washington Post called Lester Brown “one of the world’s most influential thinkers.” The Telegraph of Calcutta refers to him as “the guru of the environmental movement.” In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings “have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.”
Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother during high school and college. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. In 1959 Brown joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service as an international agricultural analyst.
Brown earned masters degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland and in public administration from Harvard. In early 1969, he helped establish the Overseas Development Council.
In 1974, with support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Lester Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues.
Brown has authored or coauthored 50 books. One of the world’s most widely published authors, his books have appeared in some 40 languages. His most recent book is World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse.
In May 2001, he founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. In November 2001, he published Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, which was hailed by E.O. Wilson as “an instant classic.”
He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including 25 honorary degrees, a MacArthur Fellowship, the 1987 United Nations’ Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his “exceptional contributions to solving global environmental problems.” More recently, he was was selected one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers of 2010. To read more about Lester Brown, visit his personal site.
Academy Articles by Lester Brown:
- Wind Power: The Missing Link to Bush’s Energy Plan
- Eco-Economy Offers Alternative to Middle East Oil
- World Wind Generating Capacity Jumps 31 Percent In 2001
- World’s Rangelands Deteriorating Under Mounting Pressure
- Ecological Deficits Taking Economic Toll
- Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
- Crossing the Lines: What’s the Future of Wind Energy?
- Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, Part 1
- Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, Part 2
- Guns or Butter, Food or Fuel
