Important Signals

By ART CULLEN

The recent announcement of the 2022 World Food Prize Laureate, Dr. Cynthia Rosenzwieg, marks the third straight year that the Des Moines-based foundation has recognized a scientist for research at the intersection of agriculture and the environment. In 2019, an Indian agronomist was honored for sustainable ag research. Last year, a Dane won for work in better ecology and production in aquaculture. And this year, Rosenzweig was cited for climate modeling involving agriculture and food systems at the renowned Goddard Space Institute at Columbia University.

This marks an important recognition by the agribusiness establishment that the industry is deeply affected by and, at the same time, is causing climate change. These laureates are delving into how agriculture can lighten the global load on greenhouse gas emissions while building natural resources for resiliency.

The World Food Prize was founded by famed plant scientist Dr. Norman Borlaug and John Ruan of Des Moines. Its sponsors include the marquee names in agriculture: John Deere, Corteva (Pioneer), Farm Bureau, the corn and soybean associations, Mosaic, Syngenta, Cargill, the Iowa Pork Producers and ADM, among others. As such, it has come under criticism from environmental advocates for providing cover for the industrial food system.

Borlaug used plant breeding, chemicals and irrigation to feed starving people first in Latin America and then India — while warning that it was only a fix for a generation or so against incessant human population growth. His predictions are turning out true on time.

Highlighting people who study soil loss and degradation, prolonged drought from Nebraska to California, and how warming temperatures affect aquaculture (an important protein source) is an acknowledgement by corporate America that we have a problem.

The only way we can sustain food production is through a collective effort involving research, farmers, land owners, agricultural suppliers and financiers. We must find ways to feed the hungry against the gales and heat and less biodiversity. It takes an all-in approach that must begin with Congress as it writes a new five-year farm bill next year, after the midterm elections.

Conservation, system resiliency and sustainability should be the framework guiding politicians who respond directly to corporate entreaties. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is especially well-suited to prod and guide the work as he tries to bring all interests along. Everyone has to win or we all lose. Republicans may well control the agriculture committees after November, when the real farm bill work starts. The World Food Prize is not just cover, it’s an important political signal that is read by senators across the Midwest as to where the discussion is in the Corn Belt.

It’s on sustainability and keeping our land whole. We can hope that the talk and awards lead to real policy improvements next year. If not, as Borlaug warned, the time on the first Green Revolution is just about up. The sure money recognizes it. It’s time we really got going on a new, better Green Revolution.

Art Cullen won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing as editor of The Storm Lake Times (now the Storm Lake Times Pilot) in northwest Iowa (stormlake.com). He is author of the book “Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope from America’s Heartland.” A documentary film, “Storm Lake,” on the challenges of running a rural biweekly paper during the pandemic, was broadcast in November 2021 on the Independent Lens series on PBS. Email times@stormlake.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2022

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