AgWired

One of the last panels of the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue on Friday was on the importance of food productivity to meet tomorrow’s demand and much of the focus was on increasing animal protein in the world diet.

Moderated by Margaret Zeigler, Executive Director of the Global Harvest Initiative, the panel included Elanco President Jeff Simmons, who we already heard from, as well as Chicago Council on Global Affairs Senior Fellow Robert Thompson, American Council for Fitness and Education CEO Susan Finn and Honduran farmer and professor Isidro Ochoa.

Thompson talked about why trade barriers need to be addressed in addition to increasing food productivity, Finn discussed the importance of protein in the diet, and Ochoa related his experiences in Honduras in increasing productivity, especially for dairy farmers. “We came together with best management practices, better health practices and feeding programs,” said Ochoa, noting that dairy producers are now delivering 8,000-12,000 liters of milk where it averaged about 50 liters just 14 years ago.

Listen to presentations by three panelists here: Panel on Increasing Productivity

Thompson, who is also currently on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as a visiting scholar, really stressed the importance of opening up trade. “We need to reduce barriers to international agricultural trade so that those countries that have no hope of feeding themselves are able to take advantage of free movement of product through the international markets,” he said, noting that is most important for countries in south and east Asia.

Listen to my interview with Thompson here: Interview with Bob Thompson

Susan Finn says addressing hunger globally includes good nutrition for the most vulnerable times in life, in the womb and from the ages of 1-5. “It’s more than calories,” she noted. “It’s the quality of those calories,” and that means protein.

“Nutritionists talk about nutrient density and that means a lot of nutrients in a relatively small amount of food,” she said, adding that the egg that Jeff Simmons talked about on the panel is a perfect example of a nutrient dense food that contains nine essential amino acids, iron, zinc and more. “I think egg is probably the most perfect protein source.”

During an interview with Susan, I also asked her what she thought about the new school lunch guidelines – find out what she said here: Interview with Susan Finn

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

The only other World Food Prize symposium I have attended was in 2008 and I was very impressed this year with how much the event has grown in just four years.

Ambassador Ken Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, was thrilled with the program and attendance this year. “We’re again at about 1400-1500 people, and that doesn’t count the 600 who came for our hunger summit, so all week we’ve got well over 2000 people,” he said. Those attendees came from at least 70 countries around the world. They also had about 300 high school students and teachers attend.

Security was very tight at this year’s event, and not just because the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Princess of Dubai were present. It was because of some wackos who decided to “Occupy the World Food Prize” to protest “corporate exploitation of our food systems.” Quinn says they stepped up security to ensure safety for all. “It’s right that people can protest and tell their view, that’s what our country is all about,” said Quinn. “But not to the extent that people are disrupting and perhaps making it feel unsafe for our visitors.” Fortunately, the protestors were very small in numbers, but sadly, they did generate a lot of publicity.

The last day of the symposium had a focus on animal protein, which Quinn says is becoming critically important in feeding the world. “More and more people in the world are going to be wanting to eat meat and have animal protein,” said Quinn. “The nexus of food and health coming together. As Hippocrates said, let food be your medicine.”

Listen to my interview with Ambassador Quinn: Ambassador Ken Quinn interview

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.