16 June 2010

Two Who Battle Hunger Win 2010 World Food Prize

Secretary Clinton announces new agricultural research initiative

Jo Luck, left, visits with a Heifer participant family in Romania that received a cow and training in its care.

By Kathryn McConnell
Staff Writer

Washington — Two leaders of grass-roots organizations fighting global hunger and poverty have been named winners of the 2010 World Food Prize.

Jo Luck, president of Heifer International, and David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, will accept the prize at an international symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 14, said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, which gives the award. The World Food Prize was founded in 1986 by Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in agricultural research.

In honoring Luck and Beckmann, the World Food Prize recognizes “the critical efforts of nongovernmental organizations in mobilizing and empowering grass-roots citizens to combat hunger and poverty,” Quinn said.

Heifer International is based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Bread for the World in Washington.

“This year’s honorees have addressed hunger in innovative ways, engaging millions of people at home and abroad. Their contributions are critical,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at the June 16 announcement ceremony in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department, which was packed with diplomats, leaders from agriculture and development, and members of Congress.

Clinton has emphasized food security and development since becoming the secretary of state.

“In a few decades, the world’s population will grow to 9 billion people. If we are to feed the future without leveling the forests, draining the aquifers, and depleting the soil of all its nutrients, we need science,” Clinton said.

In addition to praising Luck and Beckmann, the secretary of state announced a new agricultural research initiative called the Norman Borlaug Commemorative Research Initiative, “to leverage the work of our nation’s scientists to benefit farmers in developing countries worldwide.”

The initiative is part of the Obama administration’s new Feed the Future strategy and will involve the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. universities, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, private U.S. and international companies and research organizations in developing countries. Clinton said the administration will ask Congress for a significant increase in funding for agricultural research for fiscal year 2011. In 2009, Obama pledged to double U.S. support for global agriculture.

David Beckmann pumps water in a remote Mozambique village. Bread for the World advocates for more aid to improve people’s lives.

JO LUCK

“Without sustenance, people are not able to address other issues,” Luck said. “For me, ending hunger is a prerequisite for peace.”

As Heifer International’s president, Luck has built the organization into a leading nonprofit organization. The group gives livestock, seeds and agricultural training to families throughout the world. The gifts are purchased by Heifer with money it raises through private donations — mostly from individuals and community groups.

The idea behind Heifer’s unusual program is that animals and crops provide more than nutritious food. When a crop yields more grain or an animal produces more milk than a family needs, the extra can be sold to provide income for home improvements, medical care or school tuition. Families that receive livestock agree to pass on its first-born female offspring to another family, spreading the benefits of the original gift to the larger community.

Similarly, if families receive agricultural training, they commit to train other farmers. If they receive seeds, they promise to give away a portion of their first seedlings to another family.

Since its founding more than six decades ago, Heifer has provided livestock and agricultural training to more than 12 million families in more than 125 countries. (See “Gift of a Goat Brings Opportunity to Ugandan Girl.”)

DAVID BECKMANN

David Beckmann leads Bread for the World, a U.S. advocacy group that urges lawmakers to support policies that target hunger, poverty and disease. He organizes more than 250,000 voters each year to contact their congressional representatives, and his organization takes some credit for the fact that Congress has tripled funding for poverty-focused development assistance during the past decade.

“Our colleagues in developing countries are encouraged by what we’re doing,” Beckmann said. “I hope the World Food Prize will inspire more people to get involved.”

In Mozambique, Beckmann said, he saw the effects of Bread for the World’s advocacy. In a remote village in the north, he said, “a decade ago there were no schools.” But with U.S. aid reaching the area, today, “nearly all the children go to school, including AIDS orphans.” Furthermore, he said, a new village pump is saving women long daily walks to the closest lake to get water for their families.

Since 1986, the World Food Prize has recognized individuals who have made breakthrough achievements in improving the quality, quantity and availability of food throughout the world. It has been given to 31 people from all over the world who work in areas like plant breeding, soil science, early childhood nutrition, livestock health and famine relief, microcredit and the role of women in development.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)