The current debate about the adoption of biotech crops is reminiscent of similar concerns expressed about the modern wheat varieties that were introduced to Asia in the 1960s during what is now called the “Green Revolution.” Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize, led the Green Revolution and was my mentor at the time. People were suspicious of the new varieties because they were shorter in stature and seemed “unnatural.” But the new, improved varieties resulted in dramatically higher yields and saved the South Asia region from famine. For more than 40 years, South Asia has relied on these new varieties and modern agricultural technology to sustain its people, doubling wheat production and moving from wheat importers to wheat exporters. Today, scientists face a tremendous communications challenge concerning the use of agricultural biotechnologies. Dr. Borlaug would be dismayed and disgusted with the current anti-GMO movement and the worldwide cloud of fear and superstition that surrounds the use of biotech crops. He would abhor the antiscience activists and their followers who have no regard for empirical evidence and are denying farmers the right to make choices about the varieties of crops they wish to grow. Most of all, he would not want science to bypass resource-poor smallholder farmers in developing countries for whom modern agricultural technologies can mean the difference between food and famine. Dr. Borlaug was an innovator and a great communicator. He was always on message. He advocated with absolute conviction about the potential benefits to humanity of deploying the modern technologies of his time, from short-stature wheat, to modern fertilizers and agronomic techniques. We scientists need to learn from Dr. Borlaug's example and consider how we might develop our own messaging skills and advocate for the use of biotechnologies to help meet the challenges of global food security. If he were alive today, Borlaug would tell us that in the next century, the world will be challenged by more mouths to feed, new pathogens, climate change, constrained resources, and nutritionally deficient children who go to bed hungry. He would proudly defend those technologies that we all know can make a difference — from Bt maize to Bt eggplant, Bt cotton, Papaya Ringspot Virus-resistant papaya, Golden Rice, Late Blight Resistant potato, drought- and salinity-tolerant maize, genetically engineered wheat, and crops that are still in the pipelines. If Norman Borlaug were alive today, he would tell us it is our moral imperative to speak up and protect the world's right to science-based innovation. He would want us to debate our critics, lobby politicians, engage public policy makers, and stand strong before the opposition. Norman Borlaug spent a lifetime being on message and he would encourage us to be the same. If we do otherwise, we risk setting the world back 50 years. Dr. Borlaug truly despised the “constant pessimism and scare-mongering” that was as common then as it is now. He bemoaned the “bureaucratic chaos, resistance from local seed breeders, and centuries of farmers' customs, habits, and superstitions.” Through it all, however, he remained on message. Responding to those preaching danger, he provided one of my favorite responses, “If we could get a gene from rice – because rice does not suffer from rust – and then use it to protect other crops that suffer from rust like wheat, that would be a big revolution, and that would not be dangerous to human health in any way.” Speaking in Nairobi in the year 2000, not long after stem rust Ug99 was discovered, Borlaug told it like it was (and still is), “We need more investments in agriculture and we must stop looking at agriculture as a donkey's profession.” He pleaded with African leaders to embrace modern technology. “The so-called GMOs can play a very vital role in peoples' lives. However, this must be accompanied by political goodwill because technology alone cannot survive without decisive support.” Borlaug has been called a practical humanitarian. He realized that what he and his colleagues had achieved was, “a temporary success in man's war against hunger and deprivation.” He understood the challenge of the “population monster,” but he was not discouraged by it. As we are challenged by the social ills of today's world, as we experience the pressure of climate change, let us face the reality that while our science is sound, it sounds suspicious to many of its potential beneficiaries. We can and we must do a better job of communicating. We must be men and women on message, as was Borlaug, drawing on our conviction and sharing it with the world. In August, under the leadership of Dr. Sarah Evanega, Cornell University launched a new initiative — called the Cornell Alliance for Science — to help address this communication challenge. The Alliance supports a global agricultural communications platform to improve understanding of science-based agricultural technologies. The goal is to help inform decision-makers and consumers alike through an online information portal, and through training programs designed to help empower new communications champions for improving access to agricultural technology. The Alliance is building a platform to educate the public and policy makers about various agricultural biotechnologies, crop-by-crop and country-by-country, with the specific aim of promoting informed communication around GM crops. The online portal will include resources and multimedia to help support probiotech messengers. We hope that many institutions will nominate champions for training who will support science and biotechnology and food security as effectively as did Dr. Borlaug. Semester-long leadership training in championing science-based agricultural technologies will occur on the Cornell campus in the fall of 2015 and 2016, and be punctuated by week-long intensive sessions held in developing countries around the globe. As we celebrate Dr. Borlaug's 100th year, let us build on the best of Borlaug and his legacy to make the world a better, more food secure place for its soon to be 9 million inhabitants. Dr. Borlaug was a man with a message and he took new technologies to the farmer like no other person in history, before or since. He saved a billion lives and now it falls to us to sustain that salvation. When the time comes to celebrate the sesquicentennial of Dr. Borlaug's birth, let it be said that this year was the turning point when agricultural biotechnology was embraced by society because scientists spoke in its defense. None declared.