By: Kimberly Reed, Executive Director, IFIC Foundation Date: 10/13/11
Greetings from Des Moines, Iowa! As part of our International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation celebration of "Food Days" and the achievements of modern food production, I am pleased to be with 1400 participants from 75 countries celebrating the 25th anniversary of the World Food Prize.
The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the accomplishments of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.
Tonight, the former president of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, and the former president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will be honored as the newest World Food Prize Laureates at a ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol Building. This ceremony is known as the "Nobel Prize" of the food world. I want to encourage everyone to watch this event live via webcast tonight (8pm EDT) and learn first-hand about the magnificent contributions these two individuals have made to better our world.
Leading up to this ceremony, we have been engaging in the 2011 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium (the "Borlaug Dialogue"), which is the premier conference on food security in the world and brings together international expert and policy leaders to address cutting-edge issues in food security and nutrition.
This year's three-day dialogue -- The Next Generation: Confronting the Hunger Challenges of Tomorrow -- is focusing on what we need to be doing so that we can adequately feed our world, especially as our population will jump from 7 billion today to 9 billion in 2050. We are exploring topics like:
-What are the most pressing future challenges that the global community will face in fighting hunger and poverty?
-Who will be the next generation of leaders to confront such challenges and how do we best prepare and develop these leaders?
-What are the next generation of technologies, methodologies, models, and solutions to overcome such challenges?
We also celebrated the grand opening of the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates (see picture of Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn (ret.), President of The World Food Prize Foundation, with a portrait of Dr. Borlaug), a beautiful restored facility (the former Des Moines Public Library) where the public can learn about the work of Laureates worldwide.
We at the IFIC Foundation are committed to being a part of the solution to the key questions being discussed in Des Moines this week. We believe modern food production is critical, and, to help educate others -- including our future food leaders, we just released our "Food Days Fact Sheet: Celebrating the Achievements of Modern Food Production and Technology."
Today, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Program , highlighted the importance of modern food production and technology in developing nutritious products such as"Wawa Mum," a ready-to-eat food product made from locally grown chickpeas, to help end child hunger and malnutrition.
Happy 25th anniversary to the World Food Prize and congratulations to our newest World Food Prize Laureates! Executive Director Sheeran said it best: "Ending hunger requires 'radical' collaboration . . . . Thank you World Food Prize for being ahead of the curve on that one." May the World Food Prize inspire our next generation of food leaders to confront challenges and make achievements so that tomorrow's world will have access to healthful, nutritious, safe, and affordable foods.