2014 World Food Day and Borlaug Dialogue Takes Place in Des Moines IowaOctober 17, 2014 The 2014 theme for World Food Day was “Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth.” This event took place during the 2014 Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium held in Des Moines, Iowa. MVS was represented by attorney Scott Johnson to honor the 2014 Laureate, Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram for his work in developing wheat varieties. The various events taking place this week are raising awareness of the impact of family farming and smallholder farmers. These events highlight the significant efforts of Dr. Rajaram and other individuals implementing biotechnology tools to achieve significant advancements in the effort of feeding the world's population. It is estimated that over 9 billion people will inhabit the planet earth by 2050 and biotechnology tools are providing significant advancements to achieve the goals and vision Dr. Borlaug set forth. Biotechnology has significantly aided variety development in various crops for use throughout the world. These crops provide opportunity to increase global food security through their increased crop yields, decrease in production costs, and often their decrease in the "environmental footprint" of farmer. The World Food Prize events provide great opportunity to recognize the beneficial impact and humanitarian opportunities afforded by using biotechnology in plants. The annual event originates from Dr. Norman Borlaug's work in developing wheat varieties suitable for farming in various conditions throughout the world, including Mexico, Asia and Latin America. These efforts were focused on feeding the world and preventing hunger and famine (for which Dr. Borlaug was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize). Dr. Borlaug's efforts to recognize others seeking to meet the challenge of sustainably feeding the world's population resulted in the establishment of The World Food Prize. To learn more about The World Food Prize or the 2014 events taking place in Des Moines, Iowa please visithttp://www.worldfoodprize.org/. ← Return to Filewrapper