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.”
Regarding the issue of being able to produce both food and fuel on a global basis, Buchanan says, “Food is important, it’s what sustains us and it’s got to be at the top of the list, but energy is at the top of the list too. We have to continue working to find ways to ensure we have the amount of food, feed and fiber that we need, but also the energy that it takes to sustain us. Using agricultural products as part of that solution is very important.”
I last saw Dr. Buchanan at the Southern Peanut Growers Meeting earlier this year and, being a southerner, he sees value in the potential for using peanuts to produce biodiesel, for example. “When Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine he proposed that his new engine should be run on peanut oil,” Buchanan told me. “And certainly I think peanuts and other oilseed crops have great potential to address energy concerns in the future.”
Listen to Dr. Buchanan’s interview here:
wfp-08-buchanan.mp3
You can also download the audio with this link: Dr. Gale Buchanan at World Food Prize (mp3)
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?”
The amount of water that goes into growing the corn that goes into ethanol has been a big topic of conversation between those for and against production of the green fuel. That’s why it is a topic of conversation at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis this week. This gathering of government officials, academics and industry leaders is designed to take on the tough questions facing Rural America as it moves to a bioeconomy.
One of the people in the ethanol/water discussion is Noel Gollehon, a senior economist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. He says the amount of irrigated corn is particularly concerning.
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 
This year’s winners are former U.S. Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, who are responsible for legislation creating an international school-feeding program which has provided meals to feed more than 22 million children in 41 countries. They are pictured here during a dialogue held at the event with 2003 World Food Prize winner Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the World Food Program. 
Meet John Davis in case you haven’t. I meant to let you know earlier that he’s covering the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bio Economy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis this week while Cindy is in Des Moines at the World Food Prize Symposium and I’m at Sunbelt Ag Expo.
I got an overview of Sunbelt Ag Expo today. By overview I mean from the control tower for this airport which was formerly a military airfield. I climbed up and took a few photos early today.
Even though the word “crisis” is being used liberally here at the 
Conway stressed the need to address why we want to produce biofuels and the urgency to move quickly into second and even third generation biofuels – such as cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and biodiesel from algae. “Maybe we should have a new World Food Prize on this,” Conway said. “In which we transform the world from one dependent on fossil fuels for energy and production of chemicals, into one that depends on plants as a basic source of our economy.”
One of the key speakers during this session was USDA’s Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr, who talked about how we need to move forward and be aggressive… even in light of the recent stock market turbulence.
When it comes to farm show food booths, one that’s getting a lot of business at Sunbelt Ag Expo is Roasted Corn.