A week-long celebration of the World Food Prize is underway in Iowa’s capital city. The prize was conceived by Iowa native and Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug. Kenneth Quinn is the president of the World Food Prize Foundation. He says the events include an international symposium on Thursday and Friday and that includes the awarding of the 250-thousand dollar prize, known as “the Nobel Prize of agriculture,” Thursday night to Catherine Bertini. Quinn says the Thursday symposium features several prominent speakers. The speakers include U.S. Ag Secretary Ann Venemen on what is “World Food Day” and “Norman Borlaug Day”. Quinn says they’ll also have a Youth Institute. He says that’ll include 100 high school students interacting with Borlaug and the other food prize laureates. Quinn says the World Food Prize is just the centerpiece of the events.He says it’s not just the prize, but the dialogue they’re having on world hunger and poverty. He says the United Nations hunger task force is in Des Moines and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee is meeting here. The World Food Prize was created in 1986.
