KDSN RADIO News
Iowa-based World Food Prize hosting D.C. dialogue about hunger
The Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation is hosting an event in Washington, D.C. tomorrow to focus on ideas for feeding the world’s expanding population.
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who took over as foundation’s CEO March 1, said it’s inspired by a letter.
“153 Nobel laureates and World Food Prize laureates came together late last year to issue an open letter to the rest of the world suggesting that with 733,000,000 people in the world today that are currently food insecure, nearly 1 in 10 people on the face of the earth malnourished,” Vilsack said, “…they believed it was necessary to issue a call to action.”
The group’s letter suggests as the world population swells, the challenge will get more daunting, “especially when you consider the challenges of weather and its impacts on production,” Vilsack said during an interview with Radio Iowa.
“What they are calling for is an increase in research and development and an acceleration of innovation in agriculture and in production agriculture to be able to meet this need.”
Vilsack said many of the world’s conflicts revolve around food insecurity and addressing those challenges could “lead to a more peaceful world.” As the Trump Administration has moved to terminate USAID food programs in other countries, Vilsack said the World Food Prize Foundation will emphasize its record of hosting “thinkers and problem solvers” for discussions about fighting hunger.
“As one player, if you will, leaves the field, it places responsibility on the remaining players on the field to do more,” Vilsack said.
The 2008 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, a NASA scientist who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics, and three World Food Prize laureates will participate in a panel discussion at tomorrow’s event in D.C. The president of Iowa-based Stine Seed Company and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley have speaking slots as well.
