More than 1,500 people from some 70 countries are in Des Moines this week for World Food Prize festivities — annual events focused on the effort to end worldwide hunger. Another group is using the spotlight to promote its philosophy about how food should be grown, by whom and how the profits in the food system should be shared.
Jan Corderman is a member of the Iowa chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) which hosted WhyHunger of New York City and the winner of the 2012 the Food Sovereignty Prize. The prize was created by a number of food justice groups and presented this year by WhyHunger.
“Food sovereignty, in the context that it is used here, it really encompasses the right to food, to adequate nutrition and the resources that are necessary for each person to be able to feed him or herself and do it with dignity and, really, culturally appropriate ways,” says Corderman.
That prize was created in response, she says, to the World Food Prize, “With really putting the focus on sustainable growing methods and removing barriers that are there due to age or sex or gender or income, etc,” Corderman says.
The 2012 Food Sovereignty Prize was presented earlier this year to Jeomok Bak, with the Korean Women’s Peasants’ Association in South Korea. Bak was in Des Moines Monday to talk about her work.
The World Food Prize was founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner, the late Dr. Norman Borlaug of Iowa, known as the father of the “Green Revolution” for his groundbreaking work that led to new wheat varieties and improved crop management practices.
~Radio Iowa contributed to this report~
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