#BorlaugBlog
For 30 years, the World Food Prize has worked to build on the legacy of Dr. Norman Borlaug, the man who saved a billion lives, by recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Our Laureates, our close partners, and our staff work tirelessly to alleviate hunger through innovative approaches, and we hope to share their expertise, research, and personal stories on The Borlaug Blog.
In the Borlaug Blog, we will occasionally post a blog featuring stories, research, and expert opinion from our Laureates, partners, youth representatives and staff. It is our hope that this blog series will create a conversation between farmers, NGOs, CEOs and people across the globe.
Dr. Norman E. Borlaug: A Great Hunger Fighter
By Dr. N Parasuraman Raman posted on
10/21/2019
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Dr. Norman Borlaug first met Prof. M. S. Swaminathan when he was very young (age 28) in September of 1953 in Madison, Wisconsin, during the convention of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. There, Prof MSS heard his first scientific presentation on a new approach to control rust disease in...
Sparking the Vegetable Revolution
By Simon Groot posted on
10/14/2019
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Being awarded the 2019 World Food Prize is a tremendous honor, and I’m excited to join hundreds of food and development experts, innovators and leaders from around the globe at this year’s Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium. The theme—“Pax Agricultura: Peace Through Agriculture”—could not be more timely, as we confront the...
Take it to All the Farmers
By Hale Ann Tufan posted on
10/07/2019
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Here are two words you don’t hear together every day: Semantic Satiation. The term refers to a psychological phenomenon where words lose meaning from overuse. Applied to our daily lives it is the overuse of certain words in our vocabulary: literally, unique, very, basically… the list goes on. Agricultural development...
Approaching Dr. Borlaug’s Dream for High Nutrient Crops Through DNA Sequencing and Gene Editing for “Designer Crops”
By Ren Wang posted on
09/30/2019
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Twenty years ago, in a hot yet greening corn field in Longli County, Guizhou Province of China, I was accompanying Dr. Norman Borlaug to visit a farmer’s field of QPM (Quality Protein Maize). I was then Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). I was involved in...
Shifting the Attention from Farms to Farmers
By Purvi Mehta posted on
09/23/2019
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Norman Borlaug described food as a moral right. Now decades later, while many in the world continue to advocate for this fundamental right, for most, the right to food has become a reality.
Production of staple foods may be less of a prevailing rhetoric and may take less precedence...
Open Data and the Path to Global Food Security
By Cathie Woteki posted on
09/16/2019
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Making government information open and accessible is one important step toward ensuring global food security. An underlying premise of the global open data movement is that by opening up data, governments at all levels will make better decisions, entrepreneurship and new businesses will flourish, and benefits will flow to the...
The Lessons of a Picky Eater
By Clara Cownie posted on
09/09/2019
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As my internship at the World Food Prize is coming to an end, I find myself in a time of reflection. I am reflecting on the path that got me here and reflecting on what I will take with me when I am gone.
As a child, most parents try...
Women Feed Hope: My World Food Prize Message
By Sibani Ram posted on
09/02/2019
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Huddled in a soft blanket on a sophomore year snow day, I read a haunting article in the New York Times that made my heart stop. The article was Jeffrey Gettleman’s documentation of famine in the world’s youngest country – War Consumes South Sudan, a Young National Cracking Apart. As...
Teach as Borlaug Did
By José A. Zaglul posted on
08/26/2019
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The advances in science in the past few decades have occurred at a speed and sophistication like we had never experienced before in human history. It is also estimated that in the next two to five years the advances would be greater than ever in our history.
As technology develops at...
Making Magic Happen
By Mark McLellan posted on
08/19/2019
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Truly extraordinary magicians--those who capture our attention and spark our sense of wonder-- are a rare breed. In agriculture, they walk among us, defying the improbable and meeting the impossible head-on. While few of the public recognize their work, we encounter it every day at grocery stores, farmers’ markets and...