biology

World Food Prize

World Food Prize is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand World Food Prize rather than just read about it. In short: The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug and established in 1986 through the support of General Foods, the prize is envisioned and promoted as the Nobel or the highest honors in the field of food and agri…

Key takeaways

World Food Prize belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect World Food Prize to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of World Food Prize from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug and established in 1986 through the support of General Foods, the prize is envisioned and promoted as the Nobel or the highest honors in the field of food and agriculture. It is now administered by the World Food Prize Foundation with support from numerous sponsors. Since 1987, the prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply, such as animal science, aquaculture, soil science, water conservation, nutrition, health, plant science, seed science, plant pathology, crop protection, food technology, food safety, policy, research, infrastructure, emergency relief, and poverty alleviation and hunger. Laureates are honored and officially awarded their prize in Des Moines, Iowa, in an award ceremony held at the Iowa State Capitol. Laureates are presented with a diploma, a commemorative sculpture designed by Saul Bass and a monetary award of $500,000.

The Foundation also has the aim of "inspiring exceptional achievement in assuring adequate food and nutrition for all". A number of associated events and honors include the Borlaug International Symposium and the Norman Borlaug Field Award, the Iowa Hunger Summit and youth programs such as the Borlaug-Ruan International Internships.

History Norman Borlaug (1914–2009) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for contributions that resulted in the extensive increase in global food production. Chairman of the Nobel Committee Aase Lionæs gave the rationale that the committee had linked providing much needed food to the world as a path for peace. Further, the increase in food production has given policy planners across the world more years in figuring out how to feed the growing population. Twelve years later, Borlaug approached the Nobel Foundation to include a prize for food and agriculture. However, the Foundation was bound by Alfred Nobel's will which did not allow for the creation of such a new prize. Borlaug continued his search for a sponsor elsewhere. In 1986, General Foods Corporation, under Vice President A. S. Clausi's leadership, agreed to establish the prize and be the founding sponsor. The amount they agreed to, US$200,000, was equivalent to the value of the Nobel Prizes at the time. In 1990, the sponsorship was undertaken by businessman and philanthropist John Ruan and his family who established the World Food Prize Foundation, backed by a US$10 million endowment. In 2000, Kenneth M. Quinn was made the president. Borlaug, Ruan, and Quinn were all from the US state of Iowa. Barbara Stinson succeeded Quinn as the second president in 2019.

The former downtown library in Des Moines, Iowa, was acquired, and the Ruan family gave US$5 million to renovate the building into the headquarters for the World Food Prize Foundation. A number of sponsors would go on to contribute over US$20 million in a campaign to transform the building into a public museum, the Hall of Laureates, to honor Borlaug and the work of the World Food Prize laureates. Other sponsors have included over 100 charitable foundations, corporations and individuals, who have helped sustain the prize and the Foundation's associated events. The Founder's Boardroom in the Hall of Laureates commemorates 27 individuals who played an important part in the foundation of the prize. Borlaug was the first chairman of the World Food Prize laureate selection committee. He appointed the first laureate, M. S. Swaminathan, as his successor in 2009. Gebisa Ejeta, the 2009 laureate, is the current chairman. Apart from the chairman who is a non-voting member, other members of the selection committee remain anonymous. On January 24, 2023, the Foundation announced that former Iowa governor and US ambassador to China Terry Branstad would take over as president, replacing outgoing president Barbara Stinson. On March 1, 2025, Governor Branstad retired from his role as president. Former CEO Mashal Husain was named the new president, with former Iowa governor and United States secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack taking over as CEO.

Laureates World Food Prize laureates include the following:

Associated events The Foundation has expanded into a number of associated events including the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, also known as the World Food Prize Symposium or the Borlaug Dialogue. A Youth Institute was established in 1994 to motivate youngsters in agriculture, food, population and connected sciences. Youth Institutes have been set up in 24 states of the United States, and three other countries. based on essays, high school students are selected to take part in the activities of these institutes. Participation in these institutes also makes one eligible for an eight-week internship program. The Borlaug-Ruan International Internship provides high school students an eight-week opportunity for a hands-on experience, working with scientists and policymakers in hunger and nutrition at research centres around the world. The internship was founded in 1998 and has funded over 350 Borlaug-Ruan interns who have travelled to 34 agricultural research centres around the world. The Iowa Hunger Summit has taken place during the week of the World Food Prize events since 2007. The event is open to the public and celebrates the role Iowans play in fighting hunger and advancing food security each year.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with World Food Prize

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what World Food Prize claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to World Food Prize before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about World Food Prize ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of World Food Prize

In research: World Food Prize appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses World Food Prize in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: World Food Prize is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agriculture awards, Awards established in 1986, Food and drink awards, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for World Food Prize outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study World Food Prize in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what World Food Prize means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain World Food Prize out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is World Food Prize in simple terms?

Why does World Food Prize matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study World Food Prize?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on World Food Prize.