Here are a couple of ladies who are World Food Prize winners in my book. They are Victoria Carver (left) with the Iowa Soybean Association who serves on the recently created National Biodiesel Board Sustainability Task Force and Linda Funk with the Soyfoods Council and Soy For Life.
I had a chance to visit with both of these lovely ladies to talk about the role of soybeans in health and nutrition, as well as biofuels and sustainability. Linda told me that Soy For Life was formed last year to do more work in soyfoods research to further the many health benefits of soy. The foundation also funds programs to reach malnourished, under-served and hungry populations in the United States, as well as developing programs to further educate consumer, food industry professionals and the media on soy protein usage. More information about that and how do donate can be found here.
Listen to my interview with Linda here:
wfp-08-funk.mp3
Victoria told me that the NBB sustainability task force is charged with developing goals for the industry to make biodiesel production even more sustainable. They are developing an advisory committee of experts and will be holding a symposium next month on the issue. She also told me about how she challenged one of the speakers at a session during the WFP symposium who blamed biofuels for increased food prices.
Listen to my interview with Victoria here:
wfp-08-victoria.mp3
You can also download the audio with this link:
Linda Funk interview (mp3)
Victoria Carter interview (mp3)
The 2008 
Several soybean groups – including the United Soybean Board, Iowa Soybean Association, Soy Foods Council, WISHH, and 
Appropriately, the event today is held on World Food Day, and the World Soy Foundation was able to announce a new donation by Silk soy milk, a WhiteWave Foods brand, according to foundation director Jim Hershey. “
I only got to go out in the field for the cotton picking demonstration at Sunbelt Ag Expo but it was great. The weather was beautiful and the cotton looked awesome. I’ve got a number of pictures in the photo album.
There’s no question that if you grill food you’re going to attract a crowd. That’s what Joel Garrett, Garrett Grills, is doing for his second year at the 
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has just finished addressing the folks attending the latest Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference going on in St. Louis, Mo.
The President of the 
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 are former Senators Bob Dole and George McGovern, who are being honored for their work to expand USDA’s school feeding program. Dr. Buchanan says it is nice to see USDA’s program recognized for its world feeding efforts. “The department has a vital role to play in addressing these issues,” Buchanan said. “The focus of this conference is not looking inward but looking outward to every country around the world.”
Today is World Food Day in case you didn’t know it. This is a FAO-organized event held every year. I applaud their desire to bring attention to the plight of the hungry around the world.
Among the presenters was Brazil’s former minister of agriculture Roberto Rodrigues, co-chair of the 
Another speaker on the same panel was Pioneer Hi-Bred International president Paul Schickler who talked about all the improvements in seed technology and how it has increased production. He took the first question to the panel, which was “How optimistic are you that the world can reduce hunger by half by 2015?”