The World Food Prize: Introduction #WFPWednesday

Hi, everyone!I realize I am a day late and that it is not Wednesday, but I would like to start a series highlighting The World Food Prize. Be on the lookout over the next few Wednesdays as I talk about the Borlaug-Ruan International Internship, the Borlaug Dialogue, the Global Youth Institute, the Missouri Youth Institute, Norman E. Borlaug, the Hall of Laureates/Des Moines Iowa, and the various other entities that make up The World Food Prize.Today, I'll give you just a brief introduction of The World Food Prize. According to their website, the WFP "is the foremost international award recognizing -- without regard to race, religion, nationality, or political beliefs -- the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world." I agree with that. Whenever I attended The World Food Prize's annual conference, the Borlaug Symposium, I was told that receiving the WFP is like receiving the Nobel Peace Prize but for agriculture-related endeavors. While the "World Food Prize", the actual prize itself, is a big deal, it is not the only thing that The World Food Prize Foundation is known for or does throughout the year. They host state youth institutes, prepare for a 400+ student Global Youth Institute that occurs at the same time as the Borlaug-Dialogue, send students to developing countries, and a slew of other things that that are not publicized enough, in my opinion. I'm so glad that I found out about the program, on my own accord through a Google search, but I am saddened by the amount of people who are unaware of its existence and prevalence in the world. The people who receive the prize go on to do phenomenal things, the interns make gains for food insecurity, and hundreds of students learn about issues that impact food -- which in turn impacts every single person reading this blog and millions more. One of my objectives, as a Borlaug-Ruan Intern, is to share the story of WFP so that you can all become involved to.The goal of the foundation, from how I've experienced it as a Global Youth Institute participant, member of the state institute steering committee, and now as  a Borlaug-Ruan Intern, is to ultimately alleviate food insecurity (or hunger) around the world and to recognize those who are making gains through agriculture to try and achieve that.Notice how the title "The World Food Prize Foundation" doesn't have the word 'agriculture'. That's because, as I've learned from WFP, food and farming is not centered solely on the word 'agriculture' alone. Food branches into nutrition, marketing, economics, poverty, politics, peace, gender empowerment, religion, science, technology, manufacturing, human health, animal health, development, sociology, education, international relations, policy....and quite honestly, I could write a book about what "food" (and farming and agriculture) impact and this organization really focuses on the intertwining and connections among those sectors (and others) to alleviate hunger and poverty on our globe. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do, but The World Food Prize Foundation has shown me, among many other things, that a degree in agriculture can be relevant and important in any of those areas that I could go into.I mentioned Norman Borlaug earlier. He is the man that started it all! As the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in agriculture, he "envisioned a prize that would honor those who have made significant and measurable contributions to improving the world's food supply." He saw it as an opportunity to share people's achievements with a wider audience and to provide positive role models in the space; I think that's really admirable considering he is a man of many achievements, yet thought it was equally as important to recognize others.If you would like to read more information about The World Food Prize or to get a sneak peek on some of the areas I will talk about in the coming weeks, visit http://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/about_the_prize/