Several soybean groups – including the United Soybean Board, Iowa Soybean Association, Soy Foods Council, WISHH, and World Soy Foundation – jointly sponsored the luncheon today at the World Food Prize symposium. There was a record crowd of more than 750 in attendance, including over 100 students participating in the WFP Youth Institute. Appropriately, the event today is held on …
Participating in World Food Prize Events
One of the participants in the 2008 World Food Prize symposium who caught my eye yesterday was Dr. Gale Buchanan, USDA Under Secretary for Research Education and Economics. I saw him sitting in on every session I attended, so I caught up with him for an interview about the event and what he thought. This year’s World Food Prize winners …
Conversations at World Food Prize
Panel discussions at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium in Des Moines are called “conversations” and one on Wednesday focused on the “Promises and Challenges of Next-Generation Science and Technology.” Among the presenters was Brazil’s former minister of agriculture Roberto Rodrigues, co-chair of the International Biofuels Commission who made a very compelling case that both food and fuel production …
Blog Action Day and World Food Prize
Today has been “Blog Action Day” and the theme this year is poverty. Coincidentally, that is the basic theme here in Des Moines at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium – since the key focus is on feeding the hungry. So, I actually decided to participate in the event this year – both on AgWired and Domestic Fuel, since …
World Food Dialogue for Solutions
Even though the word “crisis” is being used liberally here at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium, there is a great deal of focus on solutions to feeding a growing global population. The “Global Agricultural Crisis of the 21st Century” was the topic of the keynote speaker for the symposium kickoff, Sir Gordon Conway, who is chief scientific adviser …
World Food Prize Press Room
This is Justin Cremer, director of communications for the World Food Prize, at the door of the press room. Not too many media types here yet – more will be on hand for the bigger events, like the Laureate’s Forum tonight and the actual presentation of the World Food Prize on Thursday. One person who is here is Susan Carter …
World Food Prize Events Underway
The World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium is getting underway here in Des Moines with a couple of side seminars early this morning. The opening ceremony takes place at 1 pm central time. One of this morning’s seminars was hosted by USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service, and since we didn’t have a speaker program for that event, I was …
World Food Prize Coverage
I am preparing to head up to Des Moines today to cover the 2008 World Food Prize festivities and Borlaug Dialogue. I have never been to this event, but I am looking forward to it. The 2008 World Food Prize laureates are Bob Dole and George McGovern, who are being honored for their work in establishing the McGovern-Dole international school-feeding …
Instant Feedback
How many times have you been at a meeting and had to fill out some survey at the end giving your evaluation of how the meeting went and each individual presentation? That would be everyone. And then the people who did the meeting have to get all those pieces of paper back and add up all the responses and take …
Commodity Panel at AEM Ag Exec Forum
Three commodity organization representatives attempted to answer the question on everyone’s mind right now regarding commodity trends – where are we headed? Steve Censky of the American Soybean Association, Fred Stemme with the National Corn Growers Association and Alan Tracy of US Wheat Associates all made presentations and took questions from the audience at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive …