World Food Prize
The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Since 1987, the prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply: Animal Science/Aqua Culture, Soil Science/Water/Conservation, Nutrition/Health, Plant Science/Seed Science, Plant Pathology/Crop Protection, Food Technology/Food Safety, Policy/Research/Extension, Infrastructure/Emergency Relief, & Poverty Alleviation/Hunger. The World Food Prize Foundation is currently run by Barbara Stinson. Ms. Stinson previously served as a co-founder and Senior Partner of the Meridian Institute, a renowned non-profit organization that guides collaboration and drives action to address our world’s most complex challenges. She will succeed Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, whose 20-year presidency established the international reputation and secured the legacy of the World Food Prize. Ms. Stinson will become the second president of the Foundation since Dr. Norman Borlaug established it in 1986.
History
Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug, the prize emphasizes the importance of a nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people. Borlaug saw the prize as a means of establishing role models who would inspire others.In 1985, Borlaug met with the chief executive of General Foods Corporation, James Fergusen. Norman Borlaug presented his long-standing desire for the establishment of a major prize for agriculture. The idea of a prize was met favorably by the Senior General Foods Management, but they expanded the scope of the prize to include all of the links of the food chain - from farm to table. General Foods Corporation organized a prize management structure and in 1986 announced the founding of the General Foods World Food Prize. This prize was funded solely by the General Foods Fund for the first four years of its existence and partially funded by the General Foods Fund and other contributors in the fifth year.
Since 1990, the World Food Prize has been sponsored by businessman and philanthropist, John Ruan.
Laureates are honored and officially awarded their prize in Des Moines, Iowa, in a televised award ceremony held in the House Chamber of the Iowa State Capitol. The Award Ceremony coincides with the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, known as the Borlaug Dialogue, which addresses an issue related to hunger and food security each year. Past symposia have focused on the promises and challenges presented by biofuels for global development, the dual challenges of malnutrition and obesity, water insecurity and its impact on development and stability in the Middle East, and "The Green Revolution Redux: Can We Replicate the Single Greatest Period of Hunger Reduction in All Human History?".
In 2008, the World Food Prize Foundation received a $5 million contribution from Monsanto to ensure the continuation of the annual World Food Prize International Symposium "Borlaug Dialogue". The funds supported a renewed fundraising campaign to transform the historic and former central Des Moines Public Library building into a public museum, the Hall of Laureates, to honor Norman Borlaug and the work of the World Food Prize laureates.
The 2013 Borlaug Dialogue was held 16–19 October 2013.
Funding
The prize was first funded by General Foods. Since 1990, the World Food Prize has been sponsored by the businessman John Ruan.Primary sponsors of the World Food Prize include the Government of the State of Iowa, The Iowa Economic Development Authority, The John Ruan Foundation Trust, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Other sponsors include over 100 charitable foundations, corporations and individuals, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dupont Pioneer, the Howard G. Buffet Foundation, the John Deere Foundation, the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, Monsanto, Ruan Transportation Management Systems, Claudia and Paul Schickler, Kemin Industries, Land O'Lakes and others.
Laureates
The World Food Prize laureates are formally honored at the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony annually on or near the World Food Day. The winners receive 250,000 United States dollars.The announcement of the World Food Prize laureate or laureates is made in the late spring or early summer prior to her, his or their formal recognition in October.
| Year | Laureates | Nationality | Achievement | - |
| 2020 | Dr. Rattan Lal | | For developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change His research diverged from the conventional 1970s soil fertility strategy of heavy reliance on commercial fertilizers. His research led a better understanding of how no-till farming, cover crops, crop residues, mulching, and agroforestry can restore degraded soils, increasing organic matter by sequestering atmospheric carbon in the soil, and help combat rising carbon dioxide levels in the air. | |
| 2019 | Dr. Simon N. Groot |  Netherlands | Founder and honorary chairman of East-West Seed, his initiative over the past four decades has developed a dynamic, smallholder-centric tropical vegetable seed industry, starting in Southeast Asia and spreading through Asia, Africa and Latin America | |
| 2018 | Dr. Lawrence Haddad Dr. David Nabarro | United Kingdom/South Africa United Kingdom/United Nations | Elevating maternal and child malnutrition to a central issue at national and international levels | - |
| 2017 | Dr. Akinwumi Adesina |  Nigeria | Innovator in funding and financing of African agriculture | - |
| 2016 | Dr. Maria Andrade Dr. Robert Mwanga Dr. Jan Low | Developed the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato at the CGIAR International Potato Center | - | |
| 2016 | Dr. Howarth Bouis | Founded HarvestPlus, a major NGO in the development of biofortified crops primarily use conventional breeding techniques. | - | |
| 2015 | Sir Fazle Hasan Abed | Founder of BRAC, the world's largest NGO, which is recognized for substantial work on reducing poverty in Bangladesh and 10 other countries | - | |
| 2014 | Dr Sanjaya Rajaram | | Developed 480 varieties of disease resistant wheat | - |
| 2013 | Dr Mary-Dell Chilton, Dr Robert Fraley, Dr Marc Van Montagu | Developed science of modern plant biotechnology supporting improved sustainability and global food security | - | |
| 2012 | Dr Daniel Hillel | Conceiving and implementing micro-irrigation in arid and dry land regions | - | |
| 2011 | John Agyekum Kufuor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | Creating and implementing government policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in their countries | - | |
| 2010 | David Beckmann Jo Luck | Building Bread for the World and Heifer International into two of the world's foremost grassroots organizations leading the charge to end hunger and poverty around the globe. | - | |
| 2009 | Dr. Gebisa Ejeta | Developing Africa's first sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the parasitic witchweed. | - | |
| 2008 | Bob Dole George McGovern | Leading and encouraging a global commitment to school feeding, which has enhanced school attendance and nutrition for millions of the world's poorest children, especially young women and girls. | - | |
| 2007 | Dr Philip E. Nelson | Revolutionizing food processing, packaging, transportation, and distribution by perfecting bulk aseptic packaging technology and spreading the technology worldwide. | - | |
| 2006 | Edson Lobato, His Excellency Alysson Paolinelli, Dr A. Colin McClung | Pioneering work in soil science and policy implementation that opened the vast Cerrado region of Brazil to agricultural and food production. | - | |
| 2005 | Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta | Development and dissemination of low-cost techniques for freshwater fish farming by the rural poor. | - | |
| 2004 | Prof. Yuan Longping | Development of hybrid rice varieties | - | |
| 2004 | Dr Monty Jones | Development of New Rice for Africa, with the potential to increase rice yields in Africa. | - | |
| 2003 | Catherine Bertini | / | Transforming the World Food Programme from a development assistance program to the largest and most effective humanitarian food relief organization | - |
| 2002 | Dr Pedro A. Sanchez | / | Development of methods to restore fertility to degraded soils in Africa and South America. | - |
| 2001 | Dr Per Pinstrup-Andersen | Establishment of "Food For Education" programs in which families receive food subsidies when children stay in school. | - | |
| 2000 | Dr Evangelina Villegas, Dr Surinder K. Vasal | | Developing high quality protein maize. | - |
| 1999 | Dr Walter Plowright | Developing a vaccine against the cattle plague rinderpest. | - | |
| 1998 | Dr B. R. Barwale | Founder of independent seed company Mahyco, strengthening seed supply and distribution throughout India. | - | |
| 1997 | Dr Ray F. Smith, Dr Perry Adkisson | | Developing the concept of Integrated Pest Management which employs various techniques to protect crops from insect damage in an environmentally sustainable manner. | - |
| 1996 | Dr Henry Beachell, Dr Gurdev Khush | | Developing "miracle rice" varieties that doubled rice production in Asia since their development. | - |
| 1995 | Dr Hans Rudolf Herren | Developing a pest control program for the cassava mealybug, which could destroy African cassava crop. | - | |
| 1994 | Dr Muhammad Yunus | Founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, developed innovative small loan programs for the poor, providing millions of people access to more food and better nutrition. | - | |
| 1993 | Initiation of reforms while head of the Ministry of Agriculture which made China self-sufficient for food production. | - | ||
| 1992 | Dr Edward F. Knipling, Raymond C. Bushland | | Developing the sterile insect technique to control insect parasites that harm the world's food supply. | - |
| 1991 | Dr Nevin S. Scrimshaw | Human nutrition studies that led to the use of protein-rich food products to combat malnutrition in developing countries. | - | |
| 1990 | Dr John Niederhauser | Discovering a durable resistance to potato late blight. | - | |
| 1989 | Dr Verghese Kurien | Founder of Operation Flood the largest agricultural development program in the world made the farmer the owner of his cooperative, cutting out middlemen. India emerged as the largest producer of milk in 1998 from milk scarcity when he started. | - | |
| 1988 | Dr Robert F. Chandler | Founding leadership of the International Rice Research Institute and his dedication to developing tropical rice varieties that doubled and tripled the yields of traditional varieties. | - | |
| 1987 | Prof. M. S. Swaminathan | Introducing high-yielding wheat and rice varieties to India starting India's Green Revolution. | - |
Hall of Laureates
The World Food Prize Hall of Laureates is located in the former Central Library on the Principal Riverwalk in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, which was constructed in the early 1900s as part of the City Beautiful movement.The World Food Prize Hall of Laureates honours the dreams of Norman Borlaug, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and founder of the World Food Prize, and those of John Ruan, a Des Moines businessman. John Ruan had envisioned Des Moines as the "food capital of the world", and advocated for a World Trade Center to be built in the city in the 1980s. Such a center was never built, but Ruan's endowment of the World Food Prize in 1990 set in motion a goal to secure a home for such an organization. John Ruan III began the fundraising efforts with a donation of $5 million from his family in 2001. Ten years and $30 million later, the renovation was finished in time for the 25th anniversary of the World Food Prize. The original staircase to the east entrance had been removed in 1955 but was restored during the renovation. Also restored was the acroterium which had been destroyed in the mid-1930s.
A portion of project funding was devoted to commissioning dozens of pieces of artwork by artists from Iowa and around the world to be displayed in the building. In addition, a new fountain and statues of John Ruan and Norman Borlaug can be found in the gardens on the west side of the building.
Education
Borlaug-Ruan Internship
The Borlaug-Ruan International Internship provides high school students an opportunity for an eight-week hands-on experience, working with world-renowned scientists and policy makers at leading research centres around the world.The internship was founded in 1994 and has funded over one hundred Borlaug-Ruan interns who have travelled to Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Trinidad.
Iowa Hunger Summit
The Iowa Hunger Summit has taken place during the week of the World Food Prize events since 2007. The event celebrates the role Iowans play in fighting hunger and advancing food security each year. The activities are open to the public and aim to encourage interaction among leaders in the community, government, schools, places of worship, and organizations.Controversy
The 2013 award to the seed biotechnology industry has drawn criticism from opponents of genetically modified crops.In 2014, three people were arrested who protested the World Food Prize in Des Moines.