There were many corporate, government and organization types at the World Food Prize symposium last week in Des Moines – but there were lots of real farmers as well, from all over the world. The opportunity for farmers from different countries to network with each other is very valuable, especially for sharing ideas to increase productivity.
Laura Foell is a producer from Schaller, Iowa who is a member of the United Soybean Board. This year was the third time she has been to the World Food Prize events and she enjoys the ability to interact with farmers from other countries. Earlier this year she went to Africa with some other “Women in Soy” to help other women farmers in that country. “Because 80 percent of the agriculture is done by women,” she says. “We went out to the villages where women are actually being entrepreneurs and selling products and we’re hoping to get soy as a textured protein into their selling so they can add that to their diets.”
“We had women who had HIV tell us that putting soy in their diet helped them maintain their weight or even gain weight,” she added. And she says that soybeans can not only be used for food and feed, but for fuel and even fiber as well.
Listen to my interview with Laura here: wfp-08-laura.mp3