World Food Prize Hall of Laureates is Fitting Legacy to Dr. Borlaug and Stellar Agricultural Scientists
On June 15, a U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) representative had the opportunity to visit the World Food Prize Foundation’s “Hall of Laureates” in Des Moines, Iowa. As part of an organization working on behalf of wheat farmers, this was a time to reflect on the amazing international food legacy of the late Dr. Norman Borlaug.
In 16 years of work in Sonora, Mexico, to solve a series of wheat production challenges, Dr. Borlaug developed successive generations of wheat varieties with disease resistance, adaptation to many growing regions, and high yield potential. Combined with his later, collaborative efforts in India and Africa, Dr. Borlaug can be said to have “saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived.” For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
Great Agricultural Scientists
Dr. Borlaug went on to create the annual World Food Prize in 1986 to “honor the work of great agricultural scientists to end hunger and improve the food supply.” This concept expanded to include the annual Borlaug Dialogue and the Global Youth Institute.
This vital mission to “elevate innovations and inspire action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity and availability of food for all” and the World Food Prize has a permanent home in a beautifully restored Beaux-Arts building in downtown Des Moines that originally served as the city’s public library.
USW Vice President of Communications Steve Mercer toured the Hall of Laureates and shared some photos that illustrate why this remarkable center is a fitting tribute to Dr. Borlaug, World Food Prize recipients – and wheat, with which Dr. Borlaug did so much research and development.
A Moral Right
The photo at the top of this page shows a portion of the Hall’s grand entrance, where guests are greeted by quotes around the Rotunda that establish the meaning and purpose of the World Food Prize. The quote shown upholds Dr. Borlaug’s fundamental value: “Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.” The stained-glass window above the staircase depicts a family in the Hellenistic Period bringing in the grain harvest.
The wheat plant represented in this metal sculpture is one of four that, with rice, corn and soy, depict staple food crops. The sculptures are labeled in English and the native language of the region where each crop was first cultivated. Wheat is identified by its ancient Sumerian cuneiform symbol.
“The First Farmer” sculpture represents an early Sumerian female with a digging stick, the first implement used to till the ground, with a basket for seeds or harvest.
In 2012, then Vice President of China Xi Jinping, who had spent time in Iowa in 1985 on an agricultural research mission, addressed a ceremony at the Hall when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and China’s Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu signed a U.S.-China Strategic Cooperation Agreement.
Wheat breeder Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram received the 2014 World Food Prize, the 100th anniversary of Dr. Borlaug’s birth in Iowa. for developing 480 high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties grown on more than 58 million hectares in 51 countries. As Dr. Borlaug’s successor at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, the late Dr. Rajaram is the only wheat breeder who has received the World Food Prize.
A visit to this impressive place is highly recommended. To read more about Dr. Borlaug’s life and work, USW recommends this resource from the University of Minnesota: “The Significance of Borlaug.”
