World Food Prize receives $5 million pledge from Monsanto to honor Norman Borlaug
The World Food Prize Foundation accepted a $5 million contribution Friday from Monsanto Co. to ensure the continuation of the annual World Food Prize International Symposium, now known as the “Borlaug Dialogue.” The funds support a renewed fund-raising campaign to transform the historic Des Moines Public Library building into a public museum to honor Norman Borlaug and the work of the World Food Prize laureates.
The donation was presented at a ceremony in the rotunda of the former library. Monsanto President, Chairman and CEO Hugh Grant made the announcement with various state and local officials present. Borlaug’s granddaughter, Julie Borlaug, read this statement from her grandfather: “I am extremely grateful to Monsanto and Hugh Grant for their commitment and am pleased that this magnificent building will serve as a permanent home to carry on the mission and events of the World Food Prize.”
Monsanto’s contribution is meant to ensure that the Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates will become the permanent home of the Borlaug Dialogue, the World Food Prize’s annual symposium on topics of global food security.
The Iowa-born Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his role in saving the lives of more than of 1 billion people as the “father of the green revolution.” Borlaug founded the World Food Prize in 1986. It has since become informally known as the “Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture” and the annual Borlaug Dialogue has come to be seen as one of America’s foremost international conferences.
With the $5 million commitment from Monsanto, the World Food Prize Foundation has secured $19.3 million of the total $29.8 million needed for the project. The Norman Borlaug Hall of Laureates is scheduled to be completed in 2010.